■ 






H 



Hrhw 




■ 

■ 

■ 



■'Vtf.'Jv '.... 






■ : 



■ 






■ 



;,ili¥t*U : 




(ol 



NOTES Y ' 



ON THE 



PARABLES OF OUR LORD. 



BY 

KICHAKD CHENEVIX TEENCH. 



CONDENSED, 




NEW YORK : 
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 

443 & 445 BROADWAY. 
LONDON: 16 LITTLE BRITAIN. 

M.DOCC.LXI. % 




4t *<£//&& 






'<?\ .A 



N* 



Enteeed, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, 

By D. APPLETON & CO., 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern 

District of New York. 






PEEFACE. 



All freely acknowledge the great superiority of Dean 
Trench's work on the Parables to any other on the subject 
in the English language. Unsurpassed by none in depth of 
spiritual insight or in truly evangelical sentiment, it is un- 
rivaled by any in elaborateness and critical value, or in 
familiar and felicitous use of the labors of* others, ancient 
and modern. The author would seem to have left well-nigh 
nothing unexamined that could by possibility throw even 
a side-light on his theme. To the Christian student, the 
book is as invaluable as it is delightful. 

But the size and consequent cost of the work have kept 
it beyond the easy reach of very many, and both size and 
cost are objections the more fatal — to multitudes of laymen 
especially — in that nearly, if not quite, one-third of the 
book is in the shape of notes in other languages — Greek, 
Latin, Trench, and German. It must be confessed, too, that 
the style, excellent as it is in some respects, is often lacking 
in conciseness and simplicity. 

A chief object of the present volume is to meet the 
wants of the large class of readers just referred to ; it has 
been thought, also, that " Bible Classes" would be alike 
profited and pleased in its use. The substance of the larger 



4 PREFACE. 

work is given in very nearly the author's own words, but a 
reduction in size has been effected mainly by the omission 
of detailed accounts of erroneous views and their refutation, 
and of most of the notes — these last being generally cita- 
tions from other writers in confirmation of the author's in- 
terpretations. All of the notes have been carefully read, 
and some (translated, when necessary) have been inwoven 
with the text ; some, together with more or less of other 
illustrative matter from the body of the larger book, have 
been transferred to an Appendix. Thus, little of interest to 
the merely English reader has been omitted in this humbler 
volume. 

It is now submitted to the Christian public, — not with 
the desire of supplanting the original work which still has 
the first claim on a large circle of readers, but in the hope 
of contributing to the more universal knowledge of the 
Gospel, — with the prayer, also, that it may aid in making 



CONTENTS. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 



CHAP. 


PAGE 


I. On the Definition of the Parable, 


1 


II. On Teaching by Parables, 


12 


III. On the Interpretation of Parables, 


. 22 


PARABLES. 




I. The Sower, 


29 


II. The Tares, . 


36 


III. The Mustard Seed, 


42 


IV. The Leaven, 


46 


V. The Hid Treasure, 


49 


VI. The Pearl, .... 


54 


VII. The Draw-Net, . 


57 


VIII. The Unmerciful Servant, 


62 


IX. The Laborers in the Vineyard, 


70 


X. The Two Sons, 


80 


XI. The Wicked Husbandman, . 


84 


XII. The Marriage of the King's Son, 


93 


XIII. The Ten Virgins, . 


106 


XIV. The Talents, 


•. 116 


XV. The Seed Growing Secretly, 


126 t 


XVI. The Two Debtors, 


. 130 


XVII. The Good Samaritan, 


137 


XVIII. The Friend at Midnight, 


. 147 


XIX. The Rich Fool, . 


151 



6 



CONTENTS. 



CHAP. 

XX. The Barren Fig Tree, 
XXI. The Great Supper, 
XXII. The Lost Sheep, 

XXIII. The Lost Piece of Money, . 

XXIV. The Prodigal Son, 
XXY. The Unjust Steward, 

XXYI. The Rich Man and Lazarus, 
XXVII. Unprofitable Servants, 
XXVIII. The Unjust Judge, . 
XXIX. The Pharisee and the Publican, 
XXX. The Pounds, 



Appendix : 



On other Parables besides those in the Scriptures, 
Notes, ..... 



PAGE 
156 

163 

170 

m 

181 

200 
212 
229 
234 
239 
244 



249 
255 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS, 



CHAPTER I. 

ON THE DEFINITION OF THE PAKABLE. 

Those who have had occasion to define a parable, 
do not appear to have found it an easy task. Kather 
than attempt to add another definition to those already 
given, I will seek to note briefly what seems to me to 
distinguish it from the fable, the allegory, and snch 
other forms of composition as most closely border on it. 

1. Some have confounded the parable with the 
iEsopic fable, or drawn between them only a slight 
and hardly perceptible line of distinction. But the 
parable is constructed to set forth a spiritual truth ; 
while the fable is essentially of the earth, and never 
lifts itself above the earth. The fable just reaches 



8 ISTTRODIJCTORY REMARKS. 

that pitch of morality which the world will under- 
stand and approve. But it has no place in Scrip- 
ture, for the purpose of Scripture — namely, the 
awakening of man to a consciousness of a Pivine 
original, and the education of the spiritual in him — 
excludes it. The two fables in the Old Testament 
(Judges ix. 8-15, and 2 Kings xiv. 9) do not im- 
peach the universality of this rule, for in neither case 
is it God that is speaking. For the purposes of the 
fable, which are the recommendation and enforce- 
ment of the prudential virtues, examples taken from 
the world beneath us are admirably suited. The 
greatest of all fables, Reynard the Fox, affords ample 
illustration of this. 

It belongs to the loftier standing point of the 
parable that it should be deeply earnest. Severe and 
indignant it may be, but it never jests with the 
calamities of men, however well deserved, and its 
indignation is that of holy love. In this raillery, the 
fabulist frequently indulges. There is still another 
point of difference between the parable and the fable. 
Although it cannot be said that the fabulist intends 
to deceive, when he attributes reason and language to 
beasts and trees, yet the severer reverence for truth, 
belonging to the higher moral teacher, will not allow 
even of this sporting with the truth. The great 
Teacher in His parables allowed Himself in nothing 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 9 

marvellous or anomalous ; He presents to us no speak- 
ing trees, or reasoning beasts. 

2. The parable is also different from the mythus. 

The mythic narrative presents itself not merely as the 

vehicle of the truth, but as being itself the truth ; 

while in the parable we see the perfect distinctness 

between form and essence, shell and kernel. There is 

indeed a resemblance, when upon some old legend or 

myth there is thrust some spiritual significance, 

which is clearly an after-thought. For instance, 

Narcissus was to the later Platonists the symbol of 

man, casting himself forth into the world, expecting 

to find the good answering to his nature, but finding 

death instead. It was their aim hereby to put a 

moral life into mythology, so that it might maintain 

its ground against the new life of Christianity. 

3. The parable is also clearly distinguishable from 
the proverb, though it is true that the words are some- 
times used interchangeably in the New Testament. 
(Thus, Matt. xv. 14, 15.) This interchange has come 
to pass, partly because there is but one word in the 
Hebrew to signify both parable and proverb; and 
also, because the proverb, like the parable, very com- 
monly rests upon some comparison, expressed or 
implied (2 Peter ii. 22). Or again, the proverb is 

often a concentrated parable; as for instance, "If the 
1* 



10 IKTKODUCTOKY REMARKS. 

blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch," 
might easily be extended into a parable. 

4. The parable differs from the allegory, but it i{3 
more in form than in essence. In the allegory, there is 
a blending, an interpenetration of the thing signifying 
and the thing signified. It needs not, as the parable, 
an interpretation from without, for it contains its inter- 
pretation within itself, and as it proceeds, that also 
proceeds, or at least is never far behind it. (The 
" Pilgrim's Progress " amply illustrates this.) Thus 
Isaiah y. 1-6, is a parable, the explanation being in ver. 
7 ; while Psalm lxxx. 8-16, resting on the same image, 
is an allegory. And as we have seen that many prov- 
erbs are concise parables, in like manner also, many 
are brief allegories. The eastern proverb, " The world 
is a carcass, and they who gather round it are dogs," 
interprets itself as it goes along ; while the proverb 
spoken by our Lord, " Wheresoever the carcass is, there 
will the eagles be gathered together," gives no inter- 
pretation of itself. 

To sum up all, the parable differs from the fable, 
by moving in a spiritual world, and never transgress- 
ing the actual order of natural things, — from the 
mythus, because in that there is an unconscious blend- 
ing of the deeper meaning with the outward symbol, 
the two remaining separate in the parable, — from the 
proverb, inasmuch as it is longer carried out, and not 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 11 

merely accidentally but necessarily figurative, — from 
the allegory, by comparing one thing with another, 
and not transferring, as the allegory, the properties 
of one to the other. 



CHAPTER II. 



ON TEACHING BY PAEABLES. 



No one can deny, without doing great violence to 
our Lord's words as recorded in Matt. xiii. 10-15 ; 
Mark iv. 11, 12 ; Luke viii. 9, 10, that it was some- 
times his purpose in teaching by parables, to with- 
draw from certain of his hearers the knowledge of 
truths which they were unworthy or unfit to receive. 
If not, where would be the fulfilment of the prophe- 
cy in Isaiah vi. 10 ? It is not that by the command, 
" Make the heart of this people fat," we need under- 
stand that any peculiar hardening passed upon them, 
but that the Lord having constituted as the righteous 
law of his moral government, that sin should produce 
moral insensibility, declared that he would allow the 
law in their case to take its course. The fearful curse 
of sin is, that it has ever the tendency to reproduce 
itself, that he who sows in sin reaps in spiritual 
darkness, which delivers him over again to worse 
sin. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 13 

But, notwithstanding this, we may assume as 
certain, that the general aim of our Lord in teaching 
by parables, was either to illustrate pr to prove, and 
thus to make clearer, the truths which he had in hand. 
Or to prove, I say ; the parable, or other analogy to 
spiritual truth appropriated from the world of nature 
or man, is not merely illustration, but, in some sort, 
proof. For the power of such analogies lies in the 
harmony unconsciously felt by all, and by deeper 
minds plainly perceived, between the natural and 
spiritual worlds ; the world of nature being through- 
out a witness for the world of spirit. To lovers of 
truth the things on earth are copies of the things in 
heaven. Rather, instead of being happily, but arbi- 
trarily, chosen illustrations, do they belong to one 
another, the type and the thing typified, by an in- 
ward necessity. It is not a happy accident that the 
analogy of husband and wife sets forth the mystery 
of Christ's relation to His elect Church ; but rather, 
the earthly relation is only a lower form of the heav- 
enly, on which it rests, and of which it is the utter- 
ance. The Lord is king, not borrowing this title from 
the kings of the earth, but having lent His own title 
to them ; and the " kingdom of God " is, in fact, a most 
literal expression ; it is rather the earthly kingdoms 
that are figures and shadows of the true. The un- 
tended soil yielding thorns and briers, is ever a type 



14 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

of man's heart, which, if neglected, will bring forth 
its thorns and its briers ; and the weeds that will 
mingle during the time of growth with the corn, and 
yet are separated from it at last, tell always the same 
tale of the present mingling and future sundering of 
the righteous and the wicked. And so, also, in the 
decaying of the seed, and from that the rising of the 
fruitful ear, we see evermore the prophecy of the final 
resurrection, — it is the same power putting itself forth 
upon meaner things. And thus, besides his written 
revelation, God has an elder, and one without which 
we cannot conceive how that other could be made, for 
from this it appropriates all its signs of communica- 
tion. The entire moral and visible world, with its 
kings and its subjects, its sun and its moon, its sleep- 
ing and its waking, and all its variety of opera- 
tions, is one mighty parable. 

It is true that men are ever in danger of losing 
" the key of knowledge " which opens the portals of 
this palace ; and indeed in all, save in the one Man, 
there is more or less of the dulled ear, and the filmed 
eye. There is none to whom nature tells all that she 
has to tell. Now, the whole of Scripture, with its 
constant use of figurative language, is a re-awakening 
of man to the mystery of nature, and giving back to 
him the key of knowledge ; and this comes out in its 
highest form, but by no means exclusively, in the 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 15 

parables. These were a calling of attention to the 
spiritual facts which underlie all processes of nature, 
all human institutions. Christ moved in the midst 
of what seemed to the eye of sense an old and worn- 
out world, and it became new at his touch ; for it 
told to man the inmost secrets of his being, and he 
found that of these two worlds, without him, and 
within, each threw a light and glory on the other. 

For the possibility of a real teaching by parables, 
rests on this — that this is God's world, the same God 
who is leading us into spiritual truth, and that being 
God's, it is a sharer in his great redemption. We 
must not forget, indeed, that nature in its present 
state contains but a prophecy of its coming glory ; 
it " groaneth and travaileth ;" it is suffering under 
our curse. Yet suffering thus, it has more fitting 
symbols to declare to us our disease and misery, and 
the processes of their healing. It has its storms, and 
wildernesses, its lions and adders, by these interpret- 
ing to us death and all that leads to death, no less 
than by its more beneficent workings life and all 
that tends to the restoring and maintaining of life. 

Still, not the less does it come short of its full 
purpose and meaning. It does not always speak out, 
in distinct accents, of God's truth and love. One 
day it will be translucent with the divine idea which 
it embodies, and which even now shines through it 



16 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

so wondrously. For no doubt the end will be, not 
the abolition of this nature, but the glorifying of it, 
■ — that which is now nature (natura), always, as the 
word expresses it, struggling to the birth, will then 
be born ; and the new creation will be as the glorious 
child born out of the world-long throes of the old* 
But at present, the natural world, through its share 
in man's fall, has lost in some measure its fitness for 
the expressing of his higher condition. Obnoxious 
to change, tainted with decay, all earthly things are 
weak and temporary, when they undertake to set 
forth things strong and eternal. They break down 
under the weight that is laid upon them. The father, 
unlike that heavenly Father, chastens after his own 
pleasure. The word of God, which liveth and abideth 
forever, is set forth by the seed which itself perishes 
at last. There is something exactly analogous to all 
this, in the personages mentioned in Scripture, as 
typical of the Divine Man. Through their sins and 
imperfections they all break down, sooner or later. 
For instance, few would deny the typical character of 
Solomon. Yet all that gorgeous forecasting of the 
coming glory is vouchsafed to us only for an instant. 
Even before his reign is done, we lose the brightness 
of the coloring, the distinctness of the outline. 

Again, we see some men, in whom there is but a 
-ingle point in their history which brings them into 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 17 

typical relation to Christ ; such was Jonah, the type 
of the Resurrection : or persons whose lives at one 
moment and another seem to stand out as symbolic ; 
Samson will suggest himself as one of these. It is 
scarcely possible to believe that Judges xiv. 14 and 
xvi. 30 mean nothing more than is contained in the 
letter. And so it is in every case, for somewhere or 
other every man is a liar ; he is false, that is, to the 
Divine idea, which he was meant to embody. So 
that of the truths of God in the language of men, 
which language, of course, includes man's acts as 
well as his words, it may truly be said, " we have 
this treasure in earthen vessels." No doubt it was this 
consciousness of the drawbacks that attend all our 
means of communication, that caused the mystics to 
press the idea that we should seek to abstract our- 
selves from all images of things, and that to raise 
ourselves to the contemplation of pure and naked 
truth is the height of spiritual attainment. It has 
been said that as the kernel of the seed while in the 
earth disengages itself from the outer coating, and 
alone fructifies while the husk perishes, so in the seed 
of God's word, deposited in man's heart, the sensible 
form must fall off, that the inner germ may germi- 
nate. But, we must observe, the outer covering is 
not to fall off and perish, but to become glorified. 
Man is body and soul, and the truth has, for him, 



18 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

need of a body and soul likewise ; it is well that he 
should be able to distinguish between the two, but 
not that he should seek to kill the body, that he may 
get at the soul. 

The teacher, who would find his way to the hearts 
and understandings of his hearers, will never keep 
down the parabolical element of his teaching, but 
will make as frequent use of it as he can. To do this 
effectually, will need a fresh effort of his own ; for 
while all language is more or less figurative, yet 
long use has worn out the freshness of the stamp, so 
that, to create a powerful impression, language must 
be cast into novel forms, as was done by our Saviour. 
He gave no doctrine in an abstract form, no skeleton 
of truth, but clothed them all, as it were, with flesh 
and blood. He acted Himself as He declared to His 
apostles they must act (Matt. xiii. 52); He brought 
forth out of His treasure things new and old ; by the 
help of the old, making intelligible the new. And 
thus in His own example He has given us the secret 
of all effectual teaching. 

* Had our Lord spoken naked spiritual truth, how 
many of His words would have entirely passed away 
from the hearts and memories of His hearers, But 
being imparted to them in this form, under some 
lively image, or in some brief but interesting narra- 
tive, they awakened attention, and excited inquiry ; 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 19 

or even if, at the time, the truth did not find an 
entrance into the mind, His words laid up in the 
memory, were, to many that heard Him, like the 
money of another country, of which they knew not 
the value, but which yet was ready for use when they 
reached that land. When the Spirit brought all things 
to their remembrance, He quickened the forms of truth, 
which they already possessed, with the power and 
spirit of life. Gradually, the meanings of what they 
had heard, unfolded themselves. And thus must it 
ever be with all true knowledge, which is not the 
communication of information, but the planting seeds 
of truth, which shall take root in the new soil, and 
striking their roots downward, and sending their 
branches upward, shall grow into goodly trees. 

"We may also notice, that besides the spoken, there 
is much of acted, parable in Scripture. Every type 
is a real parable. | The whole Levitical constitution, 
with its outer court, its holiest of all, its sacrifices, 
and all its ordinances, is declared to be such in the 
Epistle to the Hebrews (ix. 9). The wanderings of 
the children of Israel have ever been regarded as a 
parable of the spiritual life. We have, also, para- 
bolic persons, who represented One higher and greater 
than themselves ; men, who by their actions and suffer- 
ings were unconsciously drawing lines which another 
should hereafter fill up, as Abraham casting out 



20 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

Hagar (Gal. iv. 30), Jonah in the whale's belly, David 
in his hour of agony (Ps. 22). And, in a narrower 
circle, how often has God chosen that His servants 
should teach by an acted parable in order to make a 
more lasting impression. This will be seen in the 
conduct of Jeremiah ; he breaks a potter's vessel 
(xix. 1-11) ; he wears a yoke (xxvii. 2, xxviii. 10) ; he 
redeems a field in pledge (xxxii. 6-15). All these 
acts were symbolical. And as God chooses that His 
servants shall teach by these means, so does He teach 
them by the same. Not by His word alone, does 
He teach His prophets, but the great truths of His 
kingdom pass before their eyes incorporated in symbols. 
They are indeed, and eminently, seers. This was per- 
haps more true of Ezekiel and Zechariah than of any 
others. "We have an example of the same teaching 
in St. Peter's vision (Acts x. 9-16), and throughout 
all the visions of the Apocalypse. Nay, we might 
venture to affirm that so it was with the greatest truth, 
that which includes all others, — the manifestation of 
God in the flesh. This, inasmuch as it was a making 
visible the invisible, a teaching not by doctrine, but 
by the embodied doctrine of a divine life, was the 
most glorious of all parables. 

Our Lord's parables are found only in the three 
first Gospels ; that of St. John containing allegories 
(x. 1 ; xv. 1). The gospel of St. Matthew was written 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 21 

originally for Jewish readers, and mainly for those of . 
Palestine ; and its leading purpose was to show that 
Jesus was the promised Messiah — the expected king 
of the Jews — the son of David ; the parables recorded 
by him are concerning the kingdom, in harmony with 
the theocratic spirit of his Gospel. The main purpose 
of Luke was to show, not that Jesus was the king of 
the Jews, but the Saviour of the world ; and there- 
fore he traces our Lord's descent not merely from 
David, but from Adam. He, the chosen companion 
of the Apostle of the Gentiles, wrote his Gospel origi- 
nally for Gentile readers ; and, therefore, has been 
most careful to record the Lord's declarations con- 
cerning God's free mercy — that there is no departure 
from God so wide as to preclude a return. In this 
view, the three parables in chap. xv. are especially 
characteristic. St. Mark has but one parable peculiar 
to himself, namely, that of the seed growing by itself 
(iv. 26), and there is nothing in his record, I believe, 
to demand special notice. 



CHAPTER III. 

ON THE INTEEPEETATION OF PAEABLES. 

Each one of the parables is like a casket, itself of 
exquisite workmanship, but in which jewels richer 
than itself are laid up ; or like fruit, which, however 
lovely to look upon, is yet more delectable in its inner 
sweetness. To find, then, the golden key at the touch 
of which the casket shall reveal its treasures, to open 
this fruit so that nothing of its hidden kernel shall be 
lost, has ever been regarded as a matter of high con- 
cern. In the interpretation of the parable, the ques- 
tion, how much is significant ? is one which has given 
rise to the most opposite theories. Some have gone 
a great way in saying, This is merely drapery, and 
not the vehicle of essential truth. Chrysostom con- 
tinually warns against pressing too anxiously all the 
circumstances of a parable, and so also is it with The- 
ophylact and Origen. It has been said that the para- 
ble and its interpretation are as a plane and a globe, 
which, though brought into contact, yet touch each 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 23 

other but in one point. On the other hand, Angus- 
tine, though sometimes laying down the same princi- 
ple, frequently extends the interpretation through all 
the minutest fibres of the narrative. And in modern 
times, the followers of Cocceius have been particularly 
earnest in affirming all parts of a parable to be signifi- 
cant. It may well b*e considered whether those in- 
terpreters who claim that much of a parable is simply 
ornament, have not run into an extreme. It is quite 
true, as they say, that a knife is not all edge, nor a 
harp all strings. It is true, also, that in the other 
scheme of interpretation, there is danger lest a love 
for the exercise of ingenuity on the part of the inter- 
preter, and admiration of the ingenuity so exercised 
on the part of the readers and hearers, may cause it 
to be forgotten that sanctification of the heart through 
the truth is the main purpose of all Scripture. 

Yet, on the other hand, there is a shallow spirit ever 
ready to empty Scripture of the depth of its meaning, 
to exclaim, " This means nothing, this circumstance is 
not to be pressed ;" and thus saying, we may fail to 
draw out from the "Word of God all the riches therein 
contained ; we may fail to admire the wisdom with 
which the type was constructed to correspond with 
its antitype. And still further, of those who start 
with the principle that much is to be set aside as non- 
essential, scarcely any two are agreed as to what act- 



24 INTRODUCTORY KEMAEKS. 

ually is to be set aside 'j what one rejects, another re- 
tains, and the contrary. Besides, it is always observ- 
able that the more this system is carried out, the more 
the peculiar beauty of the parable disappears. When 
Storr, for instance, denies that the Prodigal leaving 
his father's house has any direct reference to man's 
departure from his heavenly Father, it is at once evi- 
dent how much, both of pleasure and of instruction, 
is taken from us. It may also be remarked, in oppo- 
sition to the interpretation of the parables in the gross, 
that when our Lord himself interpreted the two first 
which he delivered, those of the Sower and of the 
Tares, it is more than probable that he intended to 
furnish us with a key to the interpretation of them 
all. Now, in these, the moral application descends to 
some of the minutest details of the narrative. 

It will help us much in this matter of determining 
what is essential and what not, if we first obtain fast 
hold of the central truth which the parable would set 
forth, and distinguish it in the mind as accurately as 
we can from all truths which border upon it ; for only 
as seen from that middle point will the different parts 
appear in their true light. There is also this rule, 
that the introduction and application must be most 
carefully attended to. These helps to interpretation 
are rarely or never lacking, though given in no fixed 
or formal manner ; sometimes they are supplied by 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 25 

oar Lord himself (Matt. xxii. 14 ; xxv. 13) ; sometimes 
by the inspired narrators of His words (Luke xv. 1, 
2 ; xviii. 1) ; sometimes they precede the parable 
(Luke xviii. 9 ; xix. 11) ; sometimes they follow 
(Matt. xxv. 13 ; Luke xvi. 9). The parable of the 
Unmerciful Servant (Matt, xviii. 23) is furnished with 
these helps to its right understanding, both at its 
opening and at its close. So also are Matt. xx. 1-15, 
and Luke xii. 16-20. 

Again we may observe that an interpretation, be- 
sides being thus in accordance with its context, must 
be so without the use of any very violent means ; 
even, as generally, the interpretation must be easy — 
if not always easy to be discovered, yet being discov- 
ered, easy. For it is here as with the laws of Nature : 
genius may be needful to discover the law, but being 
discovered it throws back light upon itself, and com- 
mends itself unto all. Again, as it is the proof of the 
law that it explains all the phenomena, so it is toler- 
able evidence that we have found the right interpre- 
tation of a parable, if it leave none of the main cir- 
cumstances unexplained. 

Once more — the parables are not to be made first 
sources of doctrine. Doctrines otherwise grounded 
may be illustrated, or even further confirmed by 
them ; but it is not allowable to constitute doctrines 
first by their aid. For from the literal to the figura- 



26 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

tive, from the clearer to the more obscure, has ever 
been recognized as the law of Scripture interpretation. 
This rule, however, has been often forgotten, and 
controversialists, looking around for arguments with 
which to sustain some weak position, often invent for 
themselves supports in these. Thus Faustus Socinus 
argues from the parable of the Unmerciful Servant, 
that as the king pardoned his servant merely on his 
petition, so in the same way God, without requiring 
sacrifice or intercessor, pardons His debtors simply on 
the ground of their prayers. Socinus here sins against 
another rule of Scripture interpretation, as of common 
sense, which is, that we are not to expect, in every 
place, the whole circle of Christian truth to be fully 
stated, and that no conclusion may be drawn from the 
absence of a doctrine from one passage which is 
clearly stated in others. 

But the greatest sinners against this rule, namely, 
that the parables are not to be made first sources of 
doctrine, were the Gnostics and Manicheans, but es- 
pecially the former. They only came to the Scripture 
to find an outer Christian coloring for a system essen- 
tially anti-Christian. They came, not to draw out of 
Scripture its meaning, but to thrust into Scripture 
their own (all of which very nearly repeats itself in 
Swedenborg). To sustain their doctrine, they were 
obliged to abandon the literal portions of Scripture ; 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 27 

their only refuge was in the figurative, in those which 
might receive more interpretations than one ; such 
perhaps they might bend to their purposes. And as 
it was with the Gnostics, so was it with those sects of 
a later day, the Cathari and Bogomili. They too 
found in the parables no teaching of sin and grace, no 
truths of the kingdom of God, but fitted to them the 
speculations about the creation, the origin of evil, the 
fall of angels, which they had themselves framed. 
Thus, in the parable of the Unjust Steward, they 
made Satan the chief steward over God's house, de- 
posed from his high position, and drawing after him 
other angels with the suggestion of lighter tasks, and 
relief from the burden of their imposed duties. 

There is another theory concerning the interpreta- 
tion of the parables, held by Cocceius and his follow- 
ers of what we may call the historico-prophetical 
school. By the parables, they say, and so far they 
are right, are declared the mysteries of the kingdom 
of God. Understanding these words — the kingdom 
of God — in far too exclusive a sense, they find in every 
one of the parables a part of the history of that king- 
dom's progressive development in the world, to the 
remotest times. They will not allow that any are 
merely for exhortation, for reproof, for instruction in 
righteousness. In the words of one of their own num- 
ber : — " The parables connect themselves with certain 



28 INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 

fixed periods of the progressive development of the 
Gospel of the kingdom, and as soon as these periods 
are completed, lose themselves in the very comple- 
tion," that is, like all other fulfilled prophecy. Pro- 
phetical, no doubt, many of the parables are, for they 
declare how the new element of life, which the Lord 
was bringing into men's hearts and into the world, 
would work — the little mustard seed should grow 
to a great tree. But they do not declare so much the 
facts as the laws of the kingdom. Only a few are 
historico-prophetical. In the Wicked Husbandmen, 
for example, there is a clear prophecy of the death of 
Christ ; and in the Marriage of the King's Son, there 
is also a clear announcement of the destruction of Je- 
rusalem, and the transfer of the privileges of the king- 
dom of God from the Jews to the Gentiles. 

Note. — For remarks " on other parables besides 
those in the Scriptures," see the Appendix. 



PAEABLES. 



I. 

THE SOWER. 



Matt. xiii. 3-8, and 18-23 ; Mark iv. 3-8, and 14-20 ; Luke 
viii. 5-8, and 11-15. 

It is evidently the purpose of St. Matthew to pre- 
sent to his readers the parables recorded in the thir- 
teenth chapter of his Gospel, as the first which the 
Lord spoke ; with this of the Sower he commenced a 
manner of teaching which he had not hitherto used. 
We have not anywhere else in the Gospels so rich a 
group of parables assembled together. The only pas- 
sage that will bear comparison is chapters xv. and 
xvi. of St. Luke, where there are recorded five parables 
that were all apparently spoken on the same occasion. 

St. Matthew tells us, that " Jesus went out from 
the house," probably at Capernaum, which was the 



30 THE SOWER. 

city where lie commonly dwelt after his open ministry 
began — " his own city " (Matt. ix. 1), and which was 
"close by the sea-shore ; and going out he " sat down 
by the sea-side," that is, by the lake of Genesareth. 
This lake (now Bahr Tabaria) goes by many names in 
the Gospels. It is often called simply " the sea," or, 
" the Sea of Galilee," or, " the Sea of Tiberias," though 
indeed it was an inland lake of no very great extent, 
being but about sixteen miles in length, and no more 
than six in breadth. 

The Lord lifted, it may be, his eyes, and saw at no 
great distance an husbandman scattering his seed in 
the furrows. We find this comparison of the teach- 
er and the taught to the sower and the soil, of very 
frequent recurrence, not merely in Scripture (1 Pet. i. 
23 ; 1 John iii. 9), but in the works of all the wiser 
heathen, such as Aristotle, Cicero, Plutarch, and 
others. While all teaching that is worthy the name, 
is as seed, with a power to take root in the hearts of 
those that hear it, in a much higher sense must this 
be true of the words which He spake who was him- 
self the Seminal Word which he communicated. I 
cannot doubt that the Lord intended to set himself 
forth as the chief sower of the seed. His entrance 
into the world was a going forth to sow ; the word of 
the kingdom was his seed ; the hearts of men his soil. 

" And when lie sowed, some seeds fell hy the way- 



THE SOWER. 31 

side [and it was trodden down], and the fowls came 
and devoured them up." Some, that is, fell on the 
hard road, where it could not sink down in the earth, 
but lay exposed to the feet of passers by, till at length 
it became an easy prey to the birds, which in the East 
follow in large flocks the husbandman, to gather up, 
if possible, the scattered seed-corn. Christ thus ex- 
plains this : " When any one heareth the word of the 
kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the 
wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown 
in his heart" The words which St. Matthew alone 
records, " and understandeth it not" are very impor- 
tant for the comprehending of what this first state of 
mind and heart is, in which the "Word of God is un- 
productive of any effect. The man understands it 
' not ; he does not recognize himself as standing in 
any relation to the word, or to the kingdom of grace 
which that word proclaims. All that speaks of man's 
connection with an invisible world, all that speaks of 
sin, of redemption, of holiness, is unintelligible, and 
wholly without significance. He has exposed his 
heart as a common road to every evil influence of the 
w T orld, till it has become hard as a pavement. Besides 
all this, there is one always watching to take advan- 
tage of this evil condition of the soil, and he sends his 
ministers in the shape of evil thoughts, worldly lusts, 
&c, &c, and by their help " immediately taketh away 



32 THE SOWER. 

the word that was sown in their hearts." And the 
Lord concludes, " This is he that receiveth seed by the 
way-side" 

" Some fell upon stony places ', where they had not 
much earth, and forthwith they sprung up, because 
they had no deepness of earth y and when the sun was 
up, they were scorched, and because they had no root 
they withered away." A soil mingled with stones is 
not meant by the expression, " stony places," for this 
would not hinder the roots from striking downward. 
But what is meant is a ground where a thin coating 
of mould covered the surface of a rock. Christ then 
says, "They on the rock are they which, when they 
hear, receive the word with joy ; and these have no 
root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptar 
tion fall away" We have here a state of mind not 
stubbornly repelling the truth, but lacking in earnest- 
ness ; the same spirit which was in the minds of the 
great multitudes who followed Jesus, to whom he 
turned and told in the strongest language what disci- 
pleship to him involved (Luke xiv. 25-33). "So 
hath he not root in himself, but durethfor a while, 
for when tribulation or persecution ariseth because of 
the word, by and by he is offended" The troubles 
and afflictions which would have strengthened a true 
faith, cause a merely temporary faith to fail. The 
having the inward root answers to having a founda- 



THE SOWER. 33 

ion on a rock (Matt. vii. 25), and the image itself 
is not an unfrequent one in Scripture (Ephes. iii. 17 ; 
Col. ii. 7). Illustrations may be taken of this endur- 
ing faith from Heb. x. 34, and 2 Cor. iv. 17, 18. 
Demas on the other hand lacked that root. 

Thirdly — " Some fell among thorns, and the thorns 
sprung up and cholced it" so that " it yielded no fruit" 
Here there was no lack of soil, perhaps good soil ; but 
what was deficient was a careful husbandry, the ex- 
termination of thorns and weeds. Christ says — " He 
also that received seed among the thorns, is he that 
heareth the word, and the cares of this world and the 
deceitfulness of riches choice the word, and he hecom- 
1 eth unfruitful" In this case, the profession of a spir- 
itual life is retained, but the power of religion is by 
degrees eaten out. This is to be attributed to two 
things : the cares of this world, and its pleasures ; 
these are the thorns and briers that strangle the life 
of the soul. While that which God promises is felt to 
be good, but also what the world promises is felt to 
be equally good, there will be an attempt made to 
serve God and Mammon (Luke xxi. 34 ; 1 Tim. vi. 9). 
But " Other fell into good ground, and Ir ought 
forth fruit, some an hundred fold, some sixty fold, 
some thirty fold" The return of a hundred for one 
is not unheard of in the East (Gen. xxvi. 12). He- 
rodotus says that two hundred fold was a common re- 



34 THE SOWER. 

turn in the plain of Babylon, and sometimes three. 
We learn that " He that receiveth seed into the good 
ground, is he that heareth the word, and understand- 
eth it, which also heareth fruit" &c, &c. ; or with 
St. Luke, " That on the good ground are they, who in 
an honest and good heart, having heard the word, 
keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience." How 
can any heart be called good, before the "Word and 
the Spirit have made it so ? " Being of the truth," 
" doing truth," " having the soil of a good and honest 
heart," all mean the same thing, viz., a receptivity for 
the truth. The preaching of the Gospel may be liken- 
ed to the scattering of sparks ; where they find tinder, 
they fasten and kindle into a flame. So when Christ 
preached the word, there were, as there still are, two 
divisions of men. One was of the false-hearted, who 
called good evil, and evil good, self-excusers and self- 
justifiers, such as were the Scribes and Pharisees for 
the most part. The other class were sinners too, but 
yet acknowledging their sins, and having no wish to 
alter the everlasting relations between right and 
wrong. Such were the Matthews and the Zaccheus- 
es. Nathaniel would be yet a more perfect specimen 
— a man of a simple, earnest, truthful nature, who 
had been faithful to the light which he had — who had 
not resisted God's preparation for imparting to him His 



THE SOWER. 35 

best gift, — for we must keep in mind that the good 
soil comes as much from God as the seed. 

I suppose that the different measures of prosperity 
given in the return, indicate different degrees of fidel- 
ity in those that receive the word. The words, " Take 
heed, therefore, how ye hear ; for whosoever hath, to 
him shall he given, and whosoever hath not, from him 
shall he taken even that which he seemeth to have" 
are very important. The disciples might have been 
in danger of supposing that these four conditions of 
heart were permanently fixed. The warning, " Take 
heed how ye hear" obviates the possibility of such a 
mistake, for it tells us that according as we hear and 
receive the word, so will its success be — that even for 
those who have brought themselves into an evil con- 
dition, recovery is still, through the grace of God, pos- 
sible. For, whilst it is true that there is such a thing 
as laying waste the very soil, yet, on the other hand, 
the hard soil may again become soft — the shallow soil 
deep — the soil beset with thorns clear. For the 
heavenly seed, if acted on by the soil, also reacts 
more mightily upon it (Jer. xxiii. 29). 



n. 

THE TARES. 

Matt. xiii. 24-30, and 36-43. 

" The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man 
that sowed good seed in his field" "He that sowed 
good seed, is the So?i of man" This is the most fre- 
quent title by which our Lord designates Himself, 
though it is never given Him by any other, except by 
Stephen (Acts vii. 56), to whom it would seem prob- 
able the glorified Saviour appeared bodily. " The 
field is the world" This parable relates, as our Lord 
tells us at the beginning, to the kingdom of heaven, or 
the church. The word " world " need not perplex us ; 
it was the world, and therefore was rightly called so, 
till this seed was sown in it, but thenceforth was 
the world no longer. No narrower word would have 
sufficed for Him, in whose prophetic eye the word of 
the Gospel was contemplated as going forth, to be 
sown in every part of the great field of the nations. 



THE TAKES. 37 

" But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed 
tares among the wheat, and went his way" Our 
Lord here alluded to a form of malice which, was 
familiar to his Hearers. It involved little risk, and 
yet accomplished great mischief. A modern writer 
affirms the same to be now practised in India. In 
Ireland, an outgoing tenant, in spite, sowed wild oats 
in the fields which he was leaving, and it was next 
to impossible to exterminate them. The phrase 
" while men slept" is equivalent to " at night," and 
means nothing more. 

" The enemy that sowed " the tares " is the devil" 
so that we see Satan here, not as he works beyond 
the limits of the church, but in his malignity, mim- 
icking and counterworking the work of Christ. We 
. may here also notice the increasing distinctness (in 
comparison with the Old Testament) with which the 
doctrine of Satan's agency and of his active hostility 
to the blessedness of man is brought out ; as the lights 
become brighter, the shadows become deeper. It 
was not until the Son of man actually appeared on 
the stage of the world, that Satan came distinctly 
forward upon it also. And instead of hearing less 
of Satan, as the mystery of the kingdom of God 
unfolds itself, in the last book of Scripture, which 
details the fortune of the church till the end of time, 



38 THE TAKES. 

he is brought in as more openly working than in any 
other. 

It is observable, too, that Satan is spoken of as 
his enemy ; for here the great conflict is spoken of as 
rather between Satan and the Son of man, than 
between Satan and God. (Compare Gen. iii. 15.) It 
was part of the plan of redemption that the victory 
over evil should be a moral, rather than a physical, 
triumph. It was important, then, that man, who lost 
the battle, should also win it. (1 Cor. xv. 21.) Satan 
is all darkness ; in him is no light. God is all light, 
and in Him is no darkness at all. Man holds a middle 
ground. In him, light and darkness are struggling. 
Herein lies the possibility of redemption, because his 
will is only perverted ; Satan's will is inverted, for 
he has said, what it is never possible for a manfully to 
act upon, " Evil be thou my good ; " and therefore, 
as far as we can see, restoration is impossible for him. 
This thought, also, is full of instruction, that wheat and 
tares are not seeds of different kinds, but that tares are a 
bastard wheat. This fact makes the image curiously 
adapted to the setting forth the origin of evil, that it is 
not a generation, but a degeneration. — Having sown his 
tares, the enemy " went his way" How often, in the 
church, the beginnings of evil have been scarcely dis- 
cernible. The tares did not appear to be such till " the 
Hade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit" The 



THE TAKES. 39 

difference between the wheat, and this lolium or tare, 
is only distinguishable when the ear is formed ; thus 
fulfilling literally the Lord's words, " By their fruits 
ye shall know them. 55 Augustine remarks that it is 
only the opposition of good which makes evil to ap- 
pear. As there must be light, with which to con- 
trast the darkness, height wherewith to measure 
depth, so there must be holiness to be grieved at un- 
holiness. This is as true of each individual heart's 
experience as of the collective church. 

" So the servants of the householder came and said 
unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy 
field ? from whence then hath it tares f 55 These ser- 
vants are not angels, but men who indeed had a right- 
eous zeal for their master's honor ; but it needed to be 
-tempered and restrained (compare Luke ix. 54). The 
question, "Didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? 5J 
expresses well the surprise and perplexity which must 
have been felt by all, in the first ages especially, who 
were zealous for God, at the woeful appearance which 
the visible church presented. Where was the " glori- 
ous church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any' such 
thing 55 ? But the reply is, " An enemy hath done 
this." It is attributed not to the imperfection which 
clings to every thing human, but to the distinct coun- 
terworking of the great spiritual enemy. Li the 
question " Wilt thou then that toe go and gather them 



40 THE TAKES. 

up ? " the temptation to use outward power for the 
suppression of error finds utterance. Therefore he 
said u J5Tay" By this prohibition are doubtless for- 
bidden all such measures for the excision of offenders 
as shall leave them no possibility for repentance. 

" Let loth grow together until the harvest" We 
learn from this, that evil is not to disappear before 
good, but to develop itself more fully, as on the other 
side good is to unfold itself more mightily also. Thus 
it will go on, until they stand face to face in the per- 
sons of Christ and Antichrist. It is clear that when 
Christ asserts that it is His purpose to make a com- 
plete separation at the end, He forbids, not the exer- 
cise of godly discipline, but any attempts to antici- 
pate the final separation. At that time, He will give 
the command, not to these servants, but to the reapers 
— " his angels, and they shall gather out of his king- 
dom, all things that offend, and all which do iniquity" 
The lot of the tares is to be gathered into bundles, 
and burned, or, as it is here, the angels " shall cast 
them into the furnace of fire" Augustine explains 
this gathering into bundles by the idea of " like to 
like ; " " that is," he says, " extortioners with extor- 
tioners, adulterers with adulterers, murderers with 
murderers, thieves with thieves, &c." The punish- 
ment by fire was one that was not in use among the 
Jews, but one with which they were not unacquainted. 






THE TARES. 41 

It was employed by the Chaldeans, Jer. xxix. 22, 
Dan. iii. 6. The wailing and gnashing of teeth are 
expressions of rage and impatience (Acts vii. 51). 

"Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun 
in the kingdom of their Father" A glory shall be 
revealed in the saints ; it shall not merely be brought 
to them. It shall be a glory which they before had, 
but which did not appear. That shall be the day of 
the manifestation of the sons of God ; they shall be 
acknowledged as children of the Father of Lights 
(Jam. i. 17). Not till then shall be accomplished 
those glorious prophecies recorded in the Old Testa- 
ment : " Henceforth there shall no more come into 
thee the uncircumcised and the unclean " (Isa. Iii. 1) ; 
"Thy people also shall be all righteous" (Isa. lx. 
21) ; compare Zech. xiv. 21 ; Isa. xxxy. 8 ; Joel iii. 17 ; 
Ezek. xxxvii. 21-27 ; Zeph. iii. 13. 

(See Notes on this, as on others of the parables, in 
the Appendix.) 



in. 

THE MUSTARD SEED. 
Matt. xiii. 31, 32 ; Mark iv. 30-32 ; Luke xiii. 18, 19. 

This parable, and the one that follows, would 
seem, at first sight, merely repetitions of the same 
truth ; but upon inspection, essential differences ap- 
pear. The other, of the leaven, is concerning the 
kingdom of God, which " cometh not with observa- 
tion ; " this is concerning the same kingdom, as it 
displays itself openly, and cannot be hid. That sets 
forth the power of the truth on the world brought in 
contact with it, — this the power of the truth to develop 
itself from within itself. The description of the small 
and slight beginnings and of the marvellous increase 
of the church is common to both. 

The connection between this parable and all that 
has gone before, is thus traced by Chrysostom. In 
the parable of the Sower, the disciples had heard 
that only a fourth part of the seed sown had pros- 



THE MUSTARD SEED. 43 

pered ; in the Tares, they had heard of the hindrances 
which beset even the part that remained. Lest they 
should be tempted to despair, our Lord speaks these 
two parables for their encouragement. 

The comparison of the growth of His kingdom to 
that of a tree, was one made familiar to His hearers 
from the Old Testament. The growth of a worldly 
kingdom had been set forth under this image (Dan. 
iv. 10-12 ; Ezek. xxxi. 3-9) ; as also that of the king- 
dom of God (Ps. lxxx. 8). We may also notice 
the reverence with which all antiquity was accus- 
tomed to look upon trees. The most accurate inqui- 
ries of naturalists seem to point out as the mustard 
tree of this parable, not that which goes by this name 
in Western Europe, but what is commonly called in 
Syria, Khardal. It is described as having a pleasant, 
though strongly aromatic taste, like mustard. The 
mustard-seed is here chosen because of the proportion 
between the smallness of its seed and the greatness 
of the plant which unfolds from it. The Lord wishes 
to set before His disciples the fact, that His kingdom 
should be glorious in spite of its weak and despised 
beginning. K"or can I see any thing so very ridicu- 
lous in the supposition that this seed was chosen on 
account of further qualities which it possessed ; its 
fiery vigor, the fact that through being bruised, it 
gives out its best virtues, and all this in so small a 



44 • THE MUSTARD SEED. 

compass, may have moved him to select this as an 
image of the doctrine of a crucified Redeemer, which, 
though a foolishness and a stumbling-block to some, 
should prove, to them that believed, " the power of God 
unto salvation." Nor is it his doctrine merely, but 
Christ himself that is the grain of mustard seed, for 
the kingdom of heaven, or the church, was originally 
enclosed in him, and from him unfolded itself. 

This seed is, when cast into the ground, " the 
least of all seeds" Although this is not literally 
true, yet the words " Small as a grain of mustard 
seed " were a proverbial expression among the Jews 
(Luke xvii. 6). The Koran reads — " Oh, my son, 
every matter, though it be of the weight of a grain 
of mustard seed," &c. The Son of man grew up in 
a despised province ; he did not appear in public 
until his thirtieth year ; then taught for two or three 
years in neighboring villages, and occasionally at 
Jerusalem ; made a few converts, chiefly among the 
poor and unlearned ; and then falling into the hands 
of his enemies, died the shameful death of the cross ; 
such, and so slight, was the commencement of the 
universal kingdom of God. The great schemes of 
this world have a proud beginning, a miserable 
end — like the towers of Babel ; but the works of 
God, most of all His church, have a slight beginning, 
with gradual increase, and a glorious consummation. 




THE MUSTARD SEED. 45 

So it is with His kingdom also in every single 
heart. 

The seed, " when it is grown, is the greatest among 
herbs , and becometh a tree, so that the birds of the air 
come and lodge in the branches thereof" It is well 
known that in hot countries, as in Judea, the mustard 
tree attains a size never reached in colder latitudes. 
A traveller in Chili mentions the fact of riding on 
horseback under a tree of this kind. Maldonatus 
relates that in Spain the birds are exceedingly fond 
of the seed, so that at times he has seen them light- 
ing in great numbers on the boughs. In the image 
of the birds flocking to the boughs of the tree, and 
there finding shelter and food (Ezek. xvii. 23), we are 
to recognize a prophecy of the refuge and defence 
there should be for all men in the church ; how that 
multitudes should find here protection, as well as 
satisfaction for all the wants of their souls. 



IV. 

THE LEAVEN. 
Matt. xiii. 33 ; Luke xiii. 20, 21. 

This parable relates also to the marvellous increase 
of the kingdom of God ; and not merely its develop- 
ment from within itself, but its influence on the 
world which it touches on all sides. The mustard- 
seed' for a while does not attract observation, but the 
active working of the leaven has been from the mo- 
ment that it was hidden in the lump. It is undoubt- 
edly true, that leaven is used most frequently in 
Scripture as the symbol of something evil (1 Cor. v. 
7 ; Luke xii. 1). Yet, because such is its most fre- 
quent use, it is not necessary to interpret the parable, 
as some do, as though it were a prophecy of the work- 
ings of the future mystery of iniquity. In the present 
case, its warmth, its penetrative energy, the power 
which a little of it has to lend its savor and virtue to 



THE LEAVEN. 47 

much with^vhich it comes in contact, are the chief 
points of comparison. 

There is no need, then, to take the parable in any 
other than its obvious sense, namely, that it concerns 
the diffusion, and not the corruptions, of the Gospel. 
By the leaven Ave are to understand the word of the 
kingdom, which Word in its highest sense Christ him- 
self was. Of Him it was said, " He hath no form nor 
comeliness, and when we shall see him, there is no 
beauty that we should desire him ; " but presently, 
" By his knowledge shall my righteous Servant justify 
many ; he shall divide the spoil with the strong" 
(Isa. liii. 2, 11, 12) ; and when He had given of His 
life and spirit to the Apostles, they too, though poor 
and unlearned, became the leaven of the world. 

We see that the woman took the leaven from else- 
where to mingle it with the lump ; even such is the 
Gospel, a kingdom not of this world (John xviii. 36). 
It was not the unfolding of any powers already exist- 
ing in the world, but a new power brought from 
above ; not a philosophy, but a Revelation. This leav- 
en is said to have been hidden in the mass. The ren- 
ovation which God effects is ever thus, from the in- 
ward to the outward. In the early history of Chris- 
tianity the leaven was effectually hidden. This is 
shown by the entire ignorance which heathen writers 
betray of all that was going forward a little below the 



48 THE LEAVEN. 

surface of society, even up to the very moment (with 
slight exceptions) when the triumph of Christianity 
was at hand. 

We cannot consider the words, " till the vjhole is 
leavened" as less than a prophecy of a final triumph 
of Christianity. "We may also see in these words an 
assurance that the word of life, received into any 
single heart, shall not cease its working till it has 
brought the whole man into obedience to it, sanctify- 
ing him wholly, so that he shall be altogether a new 
creation in Christ Jesus. The parable sets forth the 
mystery of regeneration, both in its first act, which 
can be but once, as the leaven is but once hidden ; 
and also in the consequent work of the Holy Ghost, 
which, as the working of the leaven, is continual and 
progressive. 



V. 

THE HID TREASURE. 

Matt. xiii. 44. 

The kingdom of God is not merely a general, it is 
also an individual, thing. A man may dwell in a 
Christendom which has been leavened, and so in a 
manner share in the universal leavening ; but more 
than this is needed, and more than this in every elect 
soul will find place. There will be a personal appro- 
priation of the benefit, and we have the history of this 
in these two parables which follow. The two are each 
the complement of the other ; so that as finders either 
of the pearl or of the hid treasure, may be classed all 
who become partakers of the rich treasures of the Gos- 
pel of Christ. One class is of those who feel that there 
must be some absolute good for man, and are, there- 
fore, seeking everywhere for this good. Such are lik- 
ened to the merchant who has the distinct purpose set 
before him of seeking goodly pearls. These are the 



50 THE HED TREASURE. 

fewest in number, but are, perhaps, the noblest con- 
verts to the truth. Again, there are others, who do 
not discover that there is an aim and a purpose for 
man's life, until the truth as it is in Jesus is revealed 
to them. Such are likened to the finder of the hid 
treasure, who stumbled upon it unawares. The joy 
of this last class — being the joy at the discovery of an 
unlooked-for treasure — is expressed. 

The case of the Jews may illustrate the parable 
of the Pearl ; though it cannot be fully carried out, 
for the most of them, although seeking the pearl, hav- 
ing a zeal for. righteousness, yet when the pearl of 
great price was offered to them, were not willing to 
sell all — to renounce their self-righteousness, and all 
else that they held dear, that they might buy it. The 
Gentiles, on the contrary, at least most of them, came 
upon the treasure unawares. Christ was found of them 
that sought him not. The case of Xathanael was of 
this kind. The Samaritan woman (John iv.) is a still 
more striking example. There must be in such char- 
acters a desire for the truth (though previously it may 
have slumbered in the soul), displaying itself in joyful 
acquiescence in it when revealed. On the other 
hand, we have a picture of a noble nature, seeking 
earnestly for the pearl of great price, in Augustine. 

A writer on Oriental customs says, that in the 
East, on account of frequent changes in dynasties, and 



THE HID TREASURE. 51 

consequent revolutions, many rich men divide their 
goods into three parts : one they employ in commerce, 
or for their support ; one they turn into jewels, which 
might be easily carried ; and a third part they bury. 
The traveller in modern times often finds great diffi- 
culty in obtaining information about antiquities, owing 
to the jealousy of the neighboring inhabitants, who 
fear lest he is coming to carry away concealed hoards 
of wealth from among them. Often, too, a man aban- 
doning his regular occupation, will devote himself to 
treasure-seeking, in the hope of growing suddenly rich 
(Job iii. 21 ; Prov. ii. 4). 

• Some draw a distinction between the field and the 
treasure, making the first to be the Scriptures, the 
second the knowledge of Christ. To me the "field " 
rather represents the outer visible Church, as distin- 
guished from the inward spiritual. He who recog- 
nizes the Church not as a human institute, but a di- 
vine, who has learned that God is in the midst of it, 
sees now that it is something beyond all earthly so- 
cieties with which he has confounded it ; and hence- 
forth it is precious in his sight, even to its outermost 
skirts, for the sake of its inward glory, which is now 
revealed to his eyes. And as the man cannot have 
the treasure, and leave the field, so he cannot have 
Christ except in his church ; he cannot have Christ in 
his heart, and at the same time separate his fortunes 



52 THE HID TREASURE. 

from those of Christ's struggling, suffering Church ; 
the treasure and the field go together. 

But not to anticipate, — this treasure, " when a man 
hath found, he hideth" If one hide the spiritual 
treasure, it will be not lest another should find it, but 
lest he himself should lose it. In the first moments 
that the truth is revealed to the soul, there may well 
be a fear lest the blessing should by some means es- 
cape from it ; and this anxiety and the consequent 
precautions seem to be indicated here. Having thus 
secured it, the finder, "for joy thereof goeth and sell- 
eth all that he hath, andhuyeth that field" It is in 
the strength of this joy that the finder of the spiritual 
treasure is enabled to go and sell all that he hath ; all 
other things have now no glory, " by reason of the 
glory which excelleth." Augustine says, in describ- 
ing his conversion, " How sweet did it at once become 
to me, to want the sweetness of those toys ! and what 
I feared to be parted from was now a joy to part 
with." Compare Phil. iii. 4-11. So, whenever 
any man renounces the thing that is closest to him — 
when the lover of money renounces his covetousness 
— and the lover of pleasure, his pleasure — then each 
is selling what he has that he may buy the field which 
contains the treasure. Compare Matt. xvi. 24 ; 
Mark ix. 43-48. 

Some have found a difficulty in the circumstance 



THE HID TREASURE. 53 

that the finder of the treasure kept back from the 
owner of the field the knowledge of the fact. But to 
this objection, it seems a sufficient reply to say that not 
every part of his conduct who found the treasure is 
proposed for imitation, but only his earnestness in se- 
curing the treasure found, his fixed purpose to make 
it his own, and his prudence. 



VL 

THE PEARL. 
Matt. xiii. 45, 46. 

Almost all which would have been said on this 
parable, had it stood alone, has been anticipated in 
the previous one. " The kingdom of God is like unto 
a merchantman seeking goodly pearls" To find them 
has been the object of his labors. He is one who has 
felt that man was not made in vain, that there must 
be a centre of peace for him, who is determined not 
to rest until the good is found. Perhaps he does not 
yet know that it is but one, for at his starting he~ is 
seeking many goodly pearls. 

We must keep in mind the great esteem in which 
the pearl was held in antiquity, so that there is record 
of almost incredible sums offered for single pearls, 
when perfect. A yellow or dusky tinge, or a want of 
entire smoothness or roundness, materially diminished 
their value. Origen observes that the fact of there 



THE PEARL. 55 

being so many inferior pearls, adds an emphasis to 
the epithet here used. The theory of the formation 
of pearls, current in ancient times, is told by Origen. 
The fish conceived the pearl from the dew of heaven, 
and according to the quality of the dew,. it was pure 
and round, or cloudy and deformed with specks. The 
merchant is seeking "goodly" pearls. Thus the one 
represented is not living for sensual objects. He has 
been, it may be, a seeker of wisdom, a philanthropist, 
a worshipper of the beautiful in nature or art — who 
has hoped to find his soul's satisfaction in these. But 
the pearl of price, which at length he finds — this pearl 
is the kingdom of God within a man — or the knowl- 
edge of Christ. 

But when he had found it, he " went and sold all 
that he had, and ~bought itP "What this selling means, 
has been told in the previous parable, and to under- 
stand what the buying means, we may compare Isa. 
lv. 1 ; Matt. xxv. 9, 10 ; '.Rev. iii. 18 ; Pro v. xxiii. 
23. The contrast between the one pearl found, and 
the many which he had been seeking, is not to be 
overlooked. Martha and Mary are illustrations of 
this point (Luke x. 41, 42). There is but one such 
pearl, since the truth is one, even as God is one ; and 
the truth possessed brings that unity into the heart of 
man which sin has destroyed. Only when man has 



56 THE PEAEL. 

found God does the great Eureka break forth from his 
lips. 

It may be worth while to mention, before closing, 
the following singular interpretation: the merchant 
seeking goodly pearls is Christ ; the Church of the 
elect is the pearl of price ; to make which his own he 
parted with all that he had, emptying himself of his 
divine glory, and taking the form of a servant. 

■* # * -K- * % 



VII. 

THE DRAW NET. 

Matt. xiii. 47-50. 

Although at first sight this parable would seem to 
say exactly the same thing as that of the Tares, yet 
there is this fundamental difference : that the central 
truth of that is the present intermixture of the good 
and bad ; of this, ihefuture separation ; of that, that 
men are not to effect the separation ; of this, that the 
separation will one day be effected by God. That con- 
cerns the gradual development, — this, the final con- 
summation of the Church. 

Our Lord did not contemplate His visible Church 
as a perfect communion ; but as there was a Ham in 
the Ark, and a Judas among the twelve, so there 
should be a Babylon even within the bosom of the 
spiritual Israel. We may notice what manner of net 
it is which is here spoken of. It is called a draw net, 
and the particular kind is specified by the word in the 



58 THE DKAW NET. 

original. On the coast of Cornwall, England, where it 
is now used, and bears the same name, seine or sean, it 
is sometimes half a mile in length. It is leaded below 
that it may sweep the bottom of the sea, and support- 
ed with corks above ; and having been carried out so 
as to inclose a large space of sea, the ends are brought 
together, and it is drawn upon the beach with all that 
it contains. This all-embracing nature of the net must 
not be left out of sight, but contains in fact a prophecy 
of the wide reach and potent operation of the Gospel 
(John xi. 52). As the servants told of in Matt. xxii. 
10, " gathered together all, as many as they found, 
both bad and good," so here the fishers take fish of 
all kinds within the folds of the net ; men of all shades 
of moral character have the Gospel preached to them, 
and find themselves within the limits of the visible 
Church. 

But we read that the net, " when it was full, they 
drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good 
into vessels, hut cast the had away" The " sitting 
down" of the fishers to the task of separation may in- 
dicate that it will be done with entire consideration, 
and without haste. When the number of God's elect 
is accomplished, then the separation of the precious 
from the vile shall follow. The " leaving " and " tak- 
ing," in Matt. xxiv. 40, 41, is most likely to be ex- 
plained by some such image as this. Probably there, 



THE DRAW NET. 59 

as here, the taking is for blessedness, the leaving for 
destruction. The dead or worthless fish are " cast 
away" An entire freedom from all evil belongs to 
the idea of the Church. In this, as in many other 
passages, the Church is contemplated as a holy inclos- 
ure, into which nothing unclean has a right to enter, 
and from which, if it has by stealth or force effected 
an entrance, it shall finally be excluded, even as those 
ceremonially unclean, in witness of this, were obliged 
to remain for a season without the camp, which was 
the figure of the true kingdom of God. "What the 
" barn" was at ver. 30, the " vessels" are here ; the 
" many mansions " (John xiv. 2) which the Lord 
went to prepare for his people. Compare Luke xvi. 
9 ; Heb. xi. 10. 

In the familiar occurrence which supplies the 
groundwork of the parable, the same who carried out 
the net would naturally be they who would inspect 
its contents, for the purpose of selecting the good, and 
casting the worthless away ; but it is pushing this cir- 
cumstance, which is, in fact, the weak side of the com- 
parison, too far, to require that the same should also 
hold good in the spiritual thing signified. "When the 
Lord interprets the parable, he passes over without a 
word the beginning of it ; and explains only the latter 
part, where the point and stress of it lay : " So shall 
it he at the end of the world : the angels shall come 



60 THE DRAW NET. 

forth and sever the wicked from among the just, and 
shall cast them into the furnace of fireP "We may 
here find an emphasis in the words " coming forth ." 
The angels have been hidden ever since the first con- 
stitution of the Church. But then, at that great epoch 
of the kingdom, they shall again " come forth " from 
before the throne of God, and walk up and down 
among men, the visible ministers of his judgments. 

The moral of this parable is different from that of 
the Tares. This teaches us that we be not content 
with being enclosed within the Gospel-net, — that 
" they are not all Israel who are of Israel," — but that, 
in the " great house" of the Church, " there are not 
only vessels of gold and silver, but of wood and earth, 
and some to honor and some to dishonor ;" that each 
of us therefore seek to be " a vessel unto honor, sanc- 
tified and meet for the master's use " (2 Tim. ii. 20, 
21 ;) since in the midst of all confusions, " the Lord 
knoweth them that are his," and will one day bring 
all confusion to an end, separating forever the pre- 
cious from the vile. 

The seven parables related in this chapter, were 
(as many have supposed) in a certain sense prophet- 
ical, for they foretold things that were to come to 
pass ; only it was not the Lord's main purpose to ac- 
quaint his servants with the future destinies of his 
Church, but rather to give them practical rules and 



THE DRAW NET. 61 

warnings for their conduct. So, too, they all have a 
certain unity, succeeding one another in natural order ; 
thus, in the Sower, are set forth the causes of the fail- 
ures and success which the word of the Gospel meets, 
when preached in the world. In the Tares, the obsta- 
cles to the internal development of Christ's kingdom 
are declared, and are traced up to their true author, 
with a warning against unwarranted human interven- 
tion. The Mustard Seed and the Leaven declare the 
victorious might — the first the outward, the second 
the inward might, of that kingdom. As these two are 
objective and general, so the two which follow are 
subjective and individual, declaring the relation of the 
kingdom to every man, and how those who have dis- 
covered its supreme worth will be willing to renounce 
all things for its sake. This last parable declares how 
that entire separation from evil, which in the second 
we saw that men might be tempted* to anticipate by 
improper methods, shall yet come to pass ; and look- 
ing forward to which, each is to strive that he may so 
use his present means of grace that he may be found 
among those who shall be the Lord's. 



VIII. 

THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 

Matt, xviii. 23-35. 

Chrysostom observes, that when Peter (v. 21) in- 
stanced seven as the number of times that an offend- 
ing brother should be forgiven, he thought certainly 
he was doing some great thing, — these seven being 
four times more than the Jewish masters enjoined. 
They grounded the duty of forgiving no oftener than 
three times on Amos i. 3 and ii. 6 ; also on Job xxxiii. 
29, 30 (see the marginal translation). There was in 
Peter's mind a consciousness of the new law of love, 
which Christ had brought into the world, — though 
an obscure one, since he supposed it possible that 
love could ever be overcome by hate. But there was 
a fundamental error in the question itself, for in pro- 
posing a limit to our forgiveness, there was implied 
the notion, that a man in forgiving gave up a right 
which he might, under certain circumstances, exer- 



THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 63 

cise. The purpose of this parable is to make clear 
that when God calls on a member of His kingdom to 
forgive, He does not call on him to renounce a right, 
but that he has now no right to exercise in the mat- 
ter ; asking for and accepting forgiveness, he has im- 
plicitly pledged himself to show it. 

" Therefore" that you may understand the better 
what I say, " is the kingdom of heaven likened unto 
a certain king, which would take account of his ser- 
vants" This is the first of the parables in which God 
appears in His character of King. We are the ser- 
vants. It is plain this is not the fnal reckoning, but 
such as is mentioned in Luke xvi. 2. To this He 
brings us by the preaching of the law, — by the setting 
of our sins before our face, — by leading us into adver- 
sities ; He takes account with us, when through one 
means or another He brings our careless security to an 
utter end. Compare 2 Sam. xii. ; the Ninevites ; the 
Jews, through John the Baptist. 

" And when he had "begun to reckon, one was 
brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand tal- 
ents" He had only " begun to reckon /" this was per- 
haps the first into whose accounts he looked. This 
one " was brought unto him ;" he never would have 
come of himself ; he would have made that ten into 
twenty thousand, for the secure sinner goes on treas- 
uring up (Eom. ii. 5) an ever mightier sum, to be one 



64 THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 

day required of him. In all probability, from the im- 
mensity of the debt, this man was one to whom some 
chief post of honor and dignity in the kingdom had 
been committed, — a satrap who should have remitted 
the revenues of his province to the royal treasury. 

The sale of the debtor's wife and children, — for the 
king commanded them to be sold with him, — rested 
upon the theory that they were a part of his property. 
By the selling here may be indicated God's alienation 
of the wicked from Himself, and their everlasting de- 
struction from the presence of the Lord, and the glory 
of His power. Compare Ps. xliv. 12. 

The servant, hearing the dreadful doom, "fell 
down and worshipped him" — prostrated himself on 
the ground, kissing his feet and knees. This servant 
" worshipped" the king ; the other servant only " he- 
sought " his fellow-servant. His words, " Lord, have 
patience with me, and I will pay thee all" show the 
extreme fear of the moment, which made him ready 
to promise impossible things, even mountains of gold, 
if he might but be delivered from present danger. 
The sinner using such words, shows that he expects 
that future obedience can make up for past disobedi- 
ence. At the earnestness of his prayer, " the lord of 
that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed 
him, and forgave him the debt" The severity of 
God, having brought the sinner to a sense of his sin, 



THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 65 

reappears (for it has been only love in disguise) as 
grace again. His lord "forgave him the debt" and 
thus this very reckoning, which threatened ruin, 
might have been the greatest mercy of all. God will 
forgive ; but He will have the sinner to know what 
and how much he is forgiven. But too soon this 
mercy was forgotten, for going out from the presence 
of his lord, he found " one of his fellow-servants, who 
owed him a hundred pence" That word, " going 
out" is one of the key- words of the parable. It is be- 
cause we " go out " of the presence of our God, 
because we do not abide there, that we are ever in 
danger of acting as this servant. By the servant's 
going out is expressed the sinner's forgetfulness of the 
benefits received from God. The term "fellow-ser- 
vant " does not imply an equality of rank between 
the two, but only that they were both servants to a 
common lord ; and the small sum of his debt is men- 
tioned, to show how little man can offend against his 
brother, compared with the amount in w T hich every 
man has offended against his God. 

" He laid hands on him, and tooJc him by the 
throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. His fellow- 
servant fell down at his feet, and besought him," using 
exactly the same words which he himself had used, 
and using, had found mercy ; but he was inexorable ; 
— he " went," dragging the debtor with him, till he 



66 THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 

could deliver him to the jailer. The man who knows 
not his own guilt is ever ready to exclaim with David, 
" The man that hath done this thing shall surely die ;" 
while, on the contrary, it is they that are spiritual to 
whom Paul commits the restoring of an offending 
brother (Gal. vi. 1). It is just in man to be hu- 
mane, — to be humane is human ; none but the alto- 
gether righteous may press his utmost rights, and this 
no man is. 

" When his fellow-servants saio what was done, 
they were very sorry" They were sorry ; their lord 
was wroth. This distinction is not accidental. In 
man, the sense of his own guilt, the deep consciousness 
that whatever sin he sees ripen in another, exists in 
its germ in his own heart, will ever cause him to feel 
sorrow when the spectacle of moral evil is brought 
before his eyes ; but in God, the pure hatred of sin — 
His love of holiness on its negative side — finds place. 
Being sorry, " they came and told unto their lord all 
that was done /" even as the righteous complain to 
God, and mourn in their prayer over the oppressions 
wrought in their sight, and which they are powerless 
to redress. The king summons the unthankful servant 
into his presence, and uses severe words, which in 
view of the great debt he had not used, " thou 
wicked servant / I forgave thee all that debt, because 
thou desiredst me : shouldst not thou also have had 



THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 67 

compassion on thy fellow-servant, even as I had pity 
on thee ? " The guilt laid to his charge is, not that 
needing mercy he refused to show it, but that having 
received mercy, he remains nnmerciful still ; a most 
important difference ! — so that they who like him are 
hard and cruel, do not thereby bear witness that they 
have received no mercy ; on the contrary, their offence 
is, that having received an infinite mercy, they remain 
unmerciful yet. The great mercy for the world, that 
Christ has put away sin, stands firm, whether we 
allow it to have a purifying influence on our hearts or 
not. 

" And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to 
the tormentors" according to the warning in Jamee 
ii. 13. " The tormentors" are not merely the keepers 
of the prison ; but those who shall make the life of 
the prisoner bitter to him ; even as there are " tor- 
mentors " in the world of woe — fellow-sinners and evil 
angels. It is strange that the king finally delivers up 
the offender, not for cruelty, but for the very debt 
which would appear to have been entirely remitted to 
him. The question is here involved, Do sins, once for- 
given, return on the sinner through his after offences ? 
But do not the difficulties of such a question arise 
from our viewing the forgiveness of sins in too formal 
a way ; — from our suffering the earthly circumstances 
of the remission of a debt, to embarrass the heavenly 



68 THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 

truth, instead of regarding them as helps, and often 
weak ones, for the setting forth of that truth ? A 
state of nature is itself a state of condemnation. If, 
then, laying aside the contemplation of a man's sins as 
a formal debt, which must either be forgiven him or 
not, we contemplate the life out of Christ as a state of 
wrath, and the life in Christ as a state of grace, we 
can better understand how a man's sins may return 
upon him ; that is, he sinning anew falls back into the 
darkness out of which he had been delivered, and all 
that he has done of former evil, adds to the darkness 
{John v. 14). He that is to partake of the final sal- 
vation must abide in Christ, else he will be " cast 
forth as a branch and withered." This is the condition 
belonging to the very essence of salvation itself. 
1 John i. 7 is an interesting parallel. 

The Eomish theologians find an argument for pur- 
gatory in the words, " till he should pay all that was 
due" as also in Matt. v. 26. But it seems plainly a 
proverbial expression ; for since man could never ac- 
quit the slightest portion of the debt which he owes 
to God, the putting of such a condition was the strong- 
est possible way of expressing the eternal duration of 
his punishment. The Lord concludes with an earnest 
warning : " So likewise shall my heavenly father do 
also unto you^ifyefrom your hearts forgive not every 
one his brother their trespasses" " So" — with the 



THE UNMERCIFUL SERVANT. 69 

same rigor ; such treasures of wrath, as well as such 
treasures of grace, are with Him. We may observe 
that, according to Scripture views, the Christian stands 
in a middle point, between a mercy received and a 
mercy yet needed. Sometimes the first is used as an 
argument for showing mercy — " forgiving one an- 
other, as Christ forgave you " (Col. iii. 13 ; Ephes. iv. 
32) ; sometimes the last, " Blessed are the merciful, 
for they shall obtain mercy " (Matt. v. 7 ; Luke vi. 
37 ; James v. 9). 



IX. 

THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 

Matt. xx. 1-16. 

This parable stands in the closest connection with 
the four last verses of the preceding chapter, and can 
only be rightly understood by their help. On the 
right tracing of this connection, and the showing how 
the parable grew out of, and was in fact an answer 
to, Peter's question, " What shall we have ? " the suc- 
cess of the exposition will mainly depend. Numerous 
difficulties beset the explanation. There is first the 
difficulty of bringing the parable into harmony with 
the saying by which it is introduced and concluded, 
and which it is plainly intended to illustrate ; second- 
ly, there is the moral difficulty, viz., how can one who 
is a member of the kingdom of God grudge in his 
heart the favors shown to other members of that 
kingdom ? or, if it is denied that these murmurers 
are members of the kingdom, how can we reconcile 



THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 71 

the fact of their having labored all day in the vine- 
yard, and finally carrying away their own reward ? 
And lastly, there is the difficulty of deciding what is 
the particular point of the parable, what is its main 
doctrine. 

There have been various interpretations of this 
parable. One of the best is that which makes it a 
warning and a prophecy of the causes which, would, 
lead to the rejection of the Jews, the first called into 
the vineyard of the Lord ; — these causes being mainly 
their proud appreciation of themselves, and their dis- 
like at seeing the Gentiles admitted at once to equal 
privileges with themselves in the kingdom of God. 
An agreement or covenant being made with those first 
hired, and none with those subsequently engaged, has 
seemed a confirmation of this view. It was notably 
fulfilled in the Jews ; but its application is universal 
and not particular ; this fulfilment was only one out 
of many. Had this been exclusively, or even prima- 
rily our Lord's meaning, we should expect to hear of 
but two bands of laborers, the first hired and the last ; 
all those who come between would only serve to con- 
fuse the image. 

Better, then, to say that the parable is directed 
against a wrong spirit of mind, which indeed was no- 
tably manifested in the Jews, but which all men in 
possession of spiritual privileges are here warned 



72 THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 

against ; while the immediate occasion from which 
the parable arose, was not one in which they (the 
Jews) were involved. The warning was not primarily 
addressed to them, but to the Apostles, as the earliest 
called to labor in the Lord's vineyard, — " the first" 
both in time, and the amount of toil and suffering 
they would have to undergo. They had seen the rich 
young man (xix. 22) go away, unable to abide the 
proof by which the Lord had revealed to him how 
strongly he was yet holden to the things of the world. 
Peter, as their spokesman, would fain know what their 
reward would be who had done this very thing from 
which he had shrunk, and had forsaken all for the 
Gospel's sake (ver. 27). The Lord answers first and 
fully in the verses following (vers. 28, 29). But the 
question, " What shall we have ? " was not a right 
one; there was a tendency to bring their obedience 
to a calculation of so much work, so much reward. 
There was also lurking a certain self-complacency in 
the speech, a comparison for self-exaltation with 
others ; they had not shrunk from the command to 
forsake all, as the young man had. Unless the answer 
which the Lord gave had been accompanied with the 
warning of the parable, it would but have served as 
fuel to the fire. " Not of works, lest any man should 
boast ;" this was the truth which He would now by 
the parable enforce ; and if nothing of works but all 



THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 73 

of grace for all, then no claim as of right upon the 
part of any. In short, the spirit of the hireling spoke 
in that question, and it is against this spirit that the 
parable is directed, which might be entitled, On the 
nature of rewards in the kingdom of God, — the whole 
finding a most instructive commentary in Kom. iv. 
1-4, which passage supplies a parallel with the 
present. 

As far as it is addressed to all true believers, the 
parable is rather a warning against what might be, 
than a prophecy of what would be. For we cannot 
imagine him who dwells in love as allowing himself 
in envious thoughts against any of his brethren, be* 
cause, though they have entered later on the service 
of God, they will yet be sharers with him of the same 
heavenly reward. Least of all, can we imagine him 
to allow such hateful feelings actually to take shape, 
or as justifying them to himself or to God, like the 
spokesman among the murmurers here. The lesson 
taught is, that those who seem chiefest in labor, yet, 
if they forget that the reward is of grace, and not of 
works, may altogether lose the things which they have 
wrought ; and those who seem last, may, by keeping 
their humility, be acknowledged first in the day of 
God. 

" The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man that 

is an householder, which went out early in the morning 
4 



74: THE LABORERS ES THE VINEYARD. 

to hire laborers into his vineyard." This is ever true 
in the spiritual world, that God seeks His laborers, and 
not they Him (John xv. 16) ; but, as in the natural 
world a call implies no force, but is something which 
may be obeyed or refused, so also is it in the spiritual 
world. The agreement made by these first hired labor- 
ers, was exactly the one Peter wished to make, " What 
shall we have ? " — while those subsequently engaged 
went in a simpler spirit, trusting that whatever was 
right would be given to them. Thus we see on the 
one side early indications of that wrong spirit which 
comes to a head in ver. 11, 12 ; on the other side we 
have the true spirit of humble waiting upon the Lord, 
in full assurance that He will give far more than we 
can deserve. 

At nine in the morning, at mid-day, and at three 
in the afternoon, he again went into the market-place, 
and those who were disengaged, he employed. "And 
about the eleventh hour, he went oat and found others 
standing idle, and saith unto them, Why stand ye 
here all the day idle ? " All activity out of Christ is 
in His sight a standing idle. " They say unto him, 
Because no man hath hired us." It can only be 
when the kingdom of God is first set up in a land, 
that sinful men with full truth can answer in these 
words. The excuse which these laborers plead, ap- 
pertains not to them who, growing up within the 



THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 75 

Church, have despised nearly to the last God's repeat- 
ed biddings to go work in His vineyard. Still one 
would not deny that there is such a thing even in the 
Christian Church as men being called — or, to speak 
more correctly, — as men obeying the call long before 
given, and entering on God's service, at the third, or 
ninth, or even the eleventh hour ; who, truly repent- 
ing of their past unprofitableness, may find their work 
graciously accepted now, and may share hereafter in 
the full rewards of the kingdom. 

" So when even was come, the lord of the vineyard 
saith unto his steward. Call the laborers, and give 
tliem their hire, beginning from the last unto the 
first" The laborers are called together ; the last 
hired, those who came in without any agreement 
made, receive a full penny. Here is encouragement 
for those who have delayed to enter on God's service 
till late in their lives, to work heartily, and with their 
might. But those who were first hired " murmured 
against the good man of the house, saying, These last 
have wrought but one hour, and thou hast made them 
equal unto us, which have borne the burden and heat 
of the day" Here the perplexing dilemma meets 
us : If these are of God's faithful people, how can they 
murmur against Him, and grudge against their fel- 
lows ? or if they are not of His people, how can they at 
last carry away the penny, the reward of eternal life ? 



76 -THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 

But there is here rather a teaching by contraries : 
6 Since you cannot imagine such a hateful spirit find- 
ing place in the perfected kingdom of God, check its 
beginnings — check all inclination to look grudgingly 
at your brethren, who, having in times past grievous- 
ly departed from God, have now found a place beside 
. yourselves in His kingdom — check all inclination to 
pride yourselves on your own doings, as though they 
gave you a claim of right upon God, instead of re- 
ceiving all from the free mercy of God.' 

The penny given to all, though objectively the same, 
subjectively is very different ; it is, in fact, to every 
one exactly what he will make it. The Lord says, " I 
am thy exceeding great reward," and He has no other 
reward to impart to any but this, namely, Himself. 
To see Him as He is, this is the reward which He has 
for all His people, the penny unto all. But what these 
murmuring laborers desire, is not to have much, but 
to have more than others ; they did not wish to grow 
together with the whole body of Christ, but to get be- 
fore their brethren, and the penny, because common 
to all, did not seem enough — while it was in fact to 
each what he would make it. For since only like 
can know like, all advances made here in humility, 
in holiness, in love, are a polishing of the mirror that 
it may reflect more distinctly the Divine image, a 
purging of the eye that it may see more clearly the 






THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 77 

Divine glory. On the contrary, all self-righteousness 
and sin of every kind, whether it stop short with im- 
pairing or end by altogether destroying the capacities 
for receiving from God, is in its degree a staining of 
the mirror, a darkening of the eye. 

" But he answered one of them" probably him 
who was loudest and foremost, " and said. Friend, I 
do thee no wrong : didst thou not agree with me for a 
penny ? " He j testifies his maimer of dealing with 
them, as well as his sovereign right in his own things. 
They had put their claim on the footing of right, and 
on that footing they are answered, ''Take that thine 
is, and go thy way ;" and again, " Is thine eye evil 
because lam good ? so long as I am just to you, may 
I not be good and liberal to them ? " Envy is ever 
spoken of as finding its expression in the eye (Deut. 
xv. 9 ; 1 Sam. xviii. 9— " Saul eyed David "). The 
solution of the difficulty that these complainers should 
get their reward is, that according to human relations, 
on which the parable is founded, and to which it must 
adapt itself, it would not have been consistent with 
equity to have made them forfeit their hire, notwith- 
standing the bad feeling which they displayed. 
But the words which follow, " So the last shall be 
first, and the first last" sufficiently indicate that with 
God an absolute forfeiture might follow, nay, must 



78 THE LABORERS m THE VINEYARD. 

follow, where this grudging, unloving spirit has come 
to its full head. 

Many have been troubled to bring these last words 
(" So the last" &c.) into agreement with the parable ; 
for in it first and last seem all put on the same foot- 
ing, while here a complete change of place is asserted. 
Some have sought an explanation in the fact that the 
last hired are the first in order of payment ; but this 
is too trifling an advantage. What has been already 
observed may famish a sufficient answer ; the saying 
is necessary to complete the moral — to express that 
which the parable did not and could not express, viz., 
the entire forfeiture which would follow on the indul- 
gence of such a temper as that here displayed. 

The words which follow, " Many he called, but 
few chosen" are difficult, on account of the position 
which they occupy. Olshausen makes the " called" 
and the u chose?i" alike partakers of final salvation, 
but holds that by these terms are signified different 
standings of men in the kingdom of God. The easiest 
interpretation seems to be, — Many are called to work 
in God's vineyard, but few retain that humility, that 
utter denial of any claim as of right on their own 
part, which will allow them in the end to be partakers 
of His reward. — In the reward there is a certain re- 
trospect to the work done, but no proportion between 
them, except such as may have been established by 



THE LABORERS IN THE VINEYARD. 79 

the free appointment of the Giver. " He is faithful 
that promised ;" this, and not any other thing, must re- 
main always the ground of all expectations and hopes ; 
and what these are to be and what they are not to be, 
it is the main purpose of this parable to declare. 






X. 

THE TWO SONS. 

Matt. xxi. 28-32. 

In the 23d verse of this chapter we see that our 
Lord was asked a question by His adversaries, they 
hoping to find accusation against Him. Now He be- 
comes the assailing party, and begins that series of 
parables, in which, as in a glass, they might see them- 
selves. Yet they are not spoken in words of defiance, 
but of earnest love — if possibly He might save them 
from the fearful sin they were about to commit. 

" But what think ye ? — A certain man had two 
sons" Under the image of two sons are ranged al- 
most all with whom our Lord came in contact. Of 
one of these classes the Pharisees were specimens, 
though all are included who have sought a righteous- 
ness through the law. In the second class are con- 
tained all who have openly transgressed the laws of 



THE TWO SONS. 81 

God. The condition of these first is preferable, pro- 
vided they give place to the righteousness of faith 
when that appears. But if their righteousness is cold 
and proud, and imagines that it wants nothing, then 
far better off is the sinner who has his eyes opened to 
perceive his misery and guilt, even though it should 
have been by grievous transgressions. The same les- 
son is taught us in all Scripture — that there is no such 
fault as counting we have no fault. Compare Kom. 
vii. 7-9 ; Luke xviii. 10-14. 

"And he came to the first and said, Son, go work 
to-day in my vineyard" This was the general sum- 
mons made both by the natural law in the conscience, 
and also by the revealed law which Moses gave, to 
bring forth fruit unto God. The son first bidden 
" said, I will not" He does not say, " I pray thee, 
have me excused," but flatly refuses ; he is the repre- 
sentative of careless, reckless sinners. "And he came 
to the second and said likewise; and he answered and 
said, I go, sir" The Scribes and Pharisees professed 
zeal for the law, but their profession was like the 
second son's promised obedience ; for when the time 
arrived when it was necessary to be on one side or 
the other, when John the Baptist came to them and 
summoned them to earnest repentance, their real un- 
righteousness was declared ; professing willingness to 
go, they yet " went not" On the other hand, many of 
4* 



82 THE TWO SONS. 

those who had been openly profane, were baptized, 
confessing their sins, and like the son who at first re- 
fused to do his father's bidding, " repented and 
went" 

The Lord then asks, " Whether of the twain did 
the will of his father ? " They are obliged to reply, 
" The first" of course, in comparison with the other. 
The Lord immediately makes the application, " Verily 
I say unto you> that the publicans and harlots go into 
the kingdom of God before you" In the words, " go 
before you" or take the lead of yon, he would indicate 
that the door of hope was yet open ; the others had in- 
deed preceded them, but they might still follow, if they 
would. Some interpreters lay an emphasis on the 
words, " in the way of righteousness" as though Christ 
would say, " The Baptist came, a pattern of that very 
righteousness of the law, in which you profess to exer- 
cise yourselves. He did not come, calling to the new 
life of the Gospel, of which I am the pattern ; he did 
not come, seeking to put new wine into old bottles ; 
but he came, fulfilling that idea of righteousness which 
you pretended to have set before yourselves, which 
consisted in separation from sinners ; and yet you re- 
jected him, and when ye had seen the fruits of his 
ministry in the conversion of sinners, repented not, 
that ye might believe him." 

This parable does not primarily apply to the Jews 



THE TWO SONS. 83 

and Gentiles, but must be referred rather to the two 
bodies within the bosom of the Jewish people : — it is 
not said, the Gentiles enter heaven before you, but 
the publicans and harlots. 



XI. 

THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 
Matt. xxi. 33-44; Mark xii. 1-12 ; Luke xx. 9-18. 

Matthew and Mark relate this parable as ad- 
dressed to tlie Pharisees, while, according to St. Luke, 
it was addressed to the people. But this is explained 
by the account itself, Luke mentioning the chief 
priests and scribes (ver. 19), in such a way as to 
show that they were present as listeners. 

The image of the kingdom of God as a vine-stock, 
or as a vineyard, runs through the whole Old Testa- 
ment (Ps. Ixxx. 8-16; Isai. v. 1-7; xxvii. 1-7; 
Jer. ii. 21). No property was considered to yield so 
large a return, and none required such unceasing care. 
Our Lord compares Himself to the vine as the noblest 
of earthly plants (John xv. 1), and in prophecy had 
been compared to it long before (Gen. xlix. 11). We 
cannot interpret the vineyard here, as the Jewish 



THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 85 

Church, since it is said to be taken away from the 
Jews, and given to another nation ; we must rather 
understand by it the kingdom of God in its idea, 
which idea Jew and Gentile have been successively 
placed in conditions to realize. 

The householder not only possessed this vineyard, he 
had himself "planted " it. The planting of this spirit- 
ual vineyard found place under Moses and Joshua, in 
the establishment of the Jewish polity in the land of 
Canaan (Deut. xxxii. 12-14 ; Ezek. xvi. 9-14 ; Neh. ix. 
23-25). By the hedging of it round about, we may 
understand their circumscription through the law, the 
Jews thus becoming a people dwelling alone, and not 
reckoned among the nations (Num. xxiii. 9). In keep- 
ing distinct the line of separation between themselves 
and the idolatrous nations, lay their security that they 
should enjoy the protection of God. (Zech. ii. 5, 
Isai. xxvi. 1.) Outwardly also, Judea was hedged 
about through its geographical position, between the 
Jordan and the two lakes, the desert and Idumea, the 
sea and Anti-Libanus. The wine-press and the tower 
would both be necessary to a vineyard. The tower 
was not merely for ornament, a kiosk, but a place of 
shelter for the watchmen, who should protect the 
fruits. The wine-press was often made by digging 
out the earth, and lining it with masonry. In the 
press above, the grapes were placed, and were com- 



86 THE WICKED HUSBANDRIES'. 

ruonly crushed out by the feet of men (Judg. ix. 
27 ; Isai. lxiii. 3). A closely-grated hole at the bot- 
tom of the press permitted the juice to pass through 
into the rat. Nothing more is probably meant by 
these arrangements than that God provided His people 
with all things necessary for life and godliness. 

" He let it out to husbandmen:' The vinevard it- 
self will signify the great body of the people, who 
were to be taught, to the end that they might bring 
forth fruits of righteousness ; and the husbandmen 
may be compared to the priests and Levites to whose 
charge this vineyard was given ; their solemn com- 
mission is recognized in such passages as Mai. ii. 7 ; 
Ezek. xxxiv. 2. Every thing implies that they had 
entered into covenant with the proprietor, even as the 
Jewish people made a covenant with God at Horeb. 
The householder then i; went into afar country \ for a 
long iridic" At Sinai, and in the miracles which 
accompanied the deliverance from Egypt, the Lord 
may be said to have openly manifested Himself to Is- 
rael, and then to have withdrawn Himself for a while, 
not speaking to the people again face to face (Dent, 
xxxiv. 10-12), but waiting in patience to see what 
manner of works the people under the teaching of 
their spiritual guides would bring forth. 

"And when the time of the fruit drew -near* he 
sent his servants to the husbandmen thai they might 



THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 87 

receive the fruits of it." These servants are to be 
explained as meaning the prophets who were sent, 
being raised up at particular times, having particular 
missions — their power lying in their mission. They 
were sent to receive " of the fruit of the vineyard" 
the householder's share of the produce — the rent 
being paid in a fixed proportion of the fruits. Olshau- 
sen says : " These fruits which are demanded, are not 
to be explained as particular works, but rather as the 
repentance, and inward longing after true righteous- 
ness, which the law was unable to bring about. The 
servants therefore are those who seek for these spirit- 
ual needs, that they may link to them the promises 
concerning a coming Redeemer." 

When the first servant came, they " heat him, and 
sent him away empty;" the next they beat, and 
" entreated him shamefully" The third they wound- 
ed and cast out of the vineyard with violence. In 
St. Luke's narrative the last and worst outrage is 
reserved for the son himself, but if we may trust 
Jewish tradition, Jeremiah was stoned by the exiles 
in Egypt, Isaiah was sawn asunder by king Manas- 
seh ; and see 2 Kings, vi. 31 ; 2 Chron. xxiv. 20, 21 ; 
xxx vi. 16 ; Acts vii. 52 ; and the whole passage finds 
a parallel in Hebrew xi. 36. The patience of the 
householder under these extraordinary provocations 
is wonderful ; and it is thus brought out that it may 



88 THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 

set forth the yet more wonderful long-suffering of 
God ; Jer. xliv. 4. The whole confession made by 
the Levites in !N*eh. ix., is an admirable commentary 
on this parable. 

"But last of all he sent unto them his son, his 
well-beloved, saying. They will reverence my son" 
(Heb. i. 1.) This was the last and crowning effort of 
Divine mercy, after which, on the one side, all the 
resources even of heavenly love are exhausted, on the 
other the measure of sins is perfectly filled up. Christ 
was a Son in the highest sense of the word (Heb. 
iii. 5, 6). " But when the husbandmen saw the son, 
they said among themselves, This is the heir / come, 
let us Tcill him, and let us seize on his inheritance" 
Compare John xi. 47-53, and the counsels of Joseph's 
brethren against him (Gen. xxxvii. 19). As they, 
thinking to defeat the purpose of God, helped to bring 
it to pass, so the Jewish rulers were the instruments 
to fulfil that purpose of God concerning Christ which 
they meant to bring to nothing. (Acts iii. 18 ; iv. 27, 
28.) "This is the heir ; " he to whom the inheritance 
will in due time descend. The husbandmen say, 
" Come, let us hill him ; " not that the Pharisees ever 
said such a thing in so many words ; but they desired 
the inheritance, they desired that what God had in- 
tended should only be temporary, enduring till the 
times of reformation, should be made permanent, — 



THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 89 

and this because they had privileges under the imper- 
fect system which would cease when the more perfect 
scheme was brought in, or rather which would be 
transformed into higher privileges for which they had 
no care. "And they caught him and cast him out of 
the vineyard, and slew him" By this we are re- 
minded of Him who " suffered without the gate." 
(Heb. xiii. 12, 13 ; John xix. 17.) By that, as by the 
exclusion from the camp, was signified the cutting off 
from the people of God, and from all share in their 
blessings. Having thus prophesied of their conduct 
to the Jewish rulers, Christ asks, " When the lord 
therefore of the vineyard comeih, what will he do unto 
those husbandmen?" We see how the successive 
generations, who for so many centuries had been 
. filling up the measure of the iniquity of Israel, are 
considered, through this parable, as but one body of 
husbandmen. God's truth is opposed to that shallow- 
ness which would make such a word as " nation " a 
dead abstraction. God will deal with nations, as in 
fact bodies, and not as being merely convenient terms 
to express certain aggregations of individuals. There 
is no injustice in this ; for while there is a life of the 
whole, there is a life of each part, so that even if we 
should belong to a nation in that of its generations 
which is chastised for its own and its fathers' iniqui- 
ties, yet it remains always possible for each individual 



90 THE WICKED HUSBANDRIES'. 

by faith and repentance to withdraw himself from 
that which really constitutes the calamity, — the 
wrath of God. 

In the question itself, " What icill he do unto those 
husbandmen ? n Christ makes the same appeal to his 
hearers as Isaiah had done (v. 3), compelling them 
to condemn themselves out of their own mouths. 
Vitringa observes : " God condemns no one who is 
not condemned by his own conscience. For God has 
in every man His judgment-seat, and by man He 
judges concerning man." It may be, from the answer 
of the Pharisees, " He icill miserably destroy those 
wicked men, and icill let out his vineyard unto other 
husbandmen" that they did not see the point of the 
parable, or perhaps it may be, as Olshausen says, that 
they pretended not to see its drift, and that therefore 
Christ spoke more plainly in ver. 42-44 : " Therefore 
I say unto you, The kingdom of God shall be teiJceri 
from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the 
fruits thereof" Then at length, Christ and His adver- 
saries stood face to face. The " God forbid n uttered 
by the people (Luke xx. 16), gives evidence that they 
had understood the parable, even before its plain 
interpretation at the last. 

Our Lord then quotes a prophecy from the Old 
Testament, proving that such a turn of things had 



THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 91 

been contemplated long before in the counsels of God. 
" Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone 
which the builders rejected, the same is become the 
head of the corner ? " The Psalm (cxviii.) from which 
it is taken, was recognized by the Jews as applicable 
to the Messiah. The reason why He leaves for a 
moment the image of the vineyard, is because of its 
inadequacy to set forth one important part of the 
truth, that the malice of the Pharisees should not 
defeat the purpose of God, — that the Son should yet 
be Heir. This is distinctly declared by the rejected 
stone becoming the head of the corner, on which the 
builders stumbled and fell, and were broken, and 
which, if they set themselves against it to the end, 
would fall upon them, and crush and destroy them 
. utterly. They fall on the stone, who are offended at 
Christ in His low estate (Isaiah viii. 14 ; Luke ii. 34) ; 
of this sin His hearers were already guilty. He warns 
them against a worse sin which they were on the 
point of committing, and which would be followed by 
a heavier punishment ; they on whom the stone falls, 
are they who deliberately set themselves in opposition 
against the Lord — knowing who He is. They shall 
not merely fall and be broken, for one might, al- 
though suffering some harm, recover himself, — but 
on them the stone shall fall and shall grind them to 
powder. 



92 THE WICKED HUSBANDMEN. 

All three Evangelists notice the exasperation of 
the chief priests and scribes, when they perceived 
that the parable was spoken against them ; had they 
not feared the people, they would have laid violent 
hands on Him at once. 



xn. 

THE MAERIAGE OF THE KING'S SON. 

Matt. xxii. 1-14. 

This parable, and that which is found at Luke 
xiv. 16, are not to be confounded with one another. 
It is plain that they were spoken on different occa- 
sions, — that at a meal,, this in the temple, and that, 
too, at a nmch earlier period of our Lord's ministry 
than this. Then the hostility of the Pharisees had 
not yet declared itself; but now they had come to 
the formal determination of making away with Christ 
by violent means. In that, the contemptuous guests 
are merely excluded from the festival, — in this, their 
city is burned up and themselves destroyed. Their 
increased guilt is set forth in this one, by the fact of 
its being a king who makes the festival, and a festival 
in honor of his son's marriage ; by which fact is 
brought out the relation of the Jews to Jesus, the 
personal theocratic king, and in every way the guilt 



91 THE aiAKKIAGE OF THE EJNG ? S SON". 

involved in their rejection of Him is heightened. 
Again, in the parable recorded by St. Luke, nothing 
more is threatened than that God would turn from 
the priests and Pharisees to another portion of the 
same nation, the publicans and harlots, — with only a 
slight intimation of the call of the Gentiles ; while 
here it is threatened that the kingdom of God shall 
be wholly taken from the Jewish people, and given 
to the Gentiles. 

In the present parable, as compared with the last 
one, we see how the Lord is revealing Himself in ever 
clearer light, as the central person of the kingdom. 
There He was indeed the son ; but here His race 
is royal (Ps. lxxii. 1). That last was a parable of 
the Old Testament history ; even Christ appears there 
rather as the last of the line of prophets and teachers, 
than as the founder of a new kingdom. In that, a 
parable of the law, God appears demanding some- 
thing from men ; in this, a parable of grace, God 
appears as giving something to them. The two fa- 
vorite images under which the prophets set forth the 
blessings of the new covenant, — that of a festival 
(Isai. xxv. 6 ; lxv. 13), and that of a marriage 
(Isai. lxi. 10 ; lxii. 5 ; Hos. ii. 19, &c, &c), are 
united in the marriage festival here. There appears, 
indeed, an inconvenience in the fact that the mem- 
bers of the Church are at once the guests invited to 



95 

the feast, and in their collective capacity constitute 
the bride at whose espousals the feast is given ; but 
in the progress of the narrative the circumstances of 
the marriage altogether fall into the background, and 
the different conduct of the invited guests becomes 
the prominent feature. This parable has its ground- 
work in the Old Testament (Exod. xxiv. 11 ; Zeph. 
i. 7, 8), and it entered into the circle of Jewish expec- 
tations that the Messiah's kingdom should be ushered 
in by a glorious festival. Our Lord Himself (Luke 
xxii. 18, 30) uses this image. It is true that the mar- 
riage is spoken of there, and at Rev. xix. 7, as not 
taking place till the end of the present age, while 
here the Lord speaks of it as present ; but we must 
keep in mind how distinct were the espousals and the 
• actual marriage in the East, and contemplate His first 
coming as the time of His espousals, while not till His 
second coming will He lead home His bride. 

At a fitting time the king " sent forth his servants 
to call them that were hidden to the wedding." This 
second invitation, or rather admonishment, is quite 
according to Eastern manners (Esth. v. 8 ; vi. 14). 
Modern travellers testify that the same custom still 
prevails. When Christ says, " to call them that were 
hidden" lie would have His hearers understand, that 
there was nothing sudden in the coming in of His 
kingdom. The invitation first went forth at the con- 



96 THE MARRIAGE OF THE KING'S SON. 

stitution of the Jewish nation as God's elect people, 
and ran through all their history, being taken up and 
repeated by each succeeding prophet. Yet they never 
did more than thus bid the guests, for they only spoke 
of good things to come. The actual calling of " them 
that were bidden " did not pertain to them. John 
the Baptist was the first in whose time the kingdom 
was actually present, the wedding-feast prepared, the 
king and the king's son manifested, and the long- 
invited guests summoned. By the first band of 
servants, I understand John and the Apostles in their 
first mission — that which they accomplished during 
the lifetime of our Lord. His own share in summon- 
ing the guests unto Himself, " Come unto me," is 
naturally kept out of sight in the parable, as it would 
have disturbed the proprieties of the characters 
represented. We see here that there was no actual 
maltreatment of these first messengers, — nor was 
there at the first against the Lord, nor against the 
Apostles during His lifetime. (The death of John 
cannot be urged here ; for Herod was an Edomite, 
and therefore not an invited guest ; and moreover it 
was for preaching the law, not the Gospel, that he 
died.) It was simply " they would not come" " Ye 
will not come to me," &c, &c. 

"Again he sent forth other servants" Here is 
described that renewed invitation to the Jews, which 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE KING'S SON. 97 

was made subsequent to the Crucifixion. There need 
be no perplexity in the words " other servants ; " for 
there were many others besides the Apostles, such as 
Stephen, Paul, Barnabas. Those, too, who were the 
same, went forth as new men, full of the Holy Ghost, 
not preaching generally a kingdom of God, but 
" Jesus and the resurrection ; " declaring that all 
things were ready — that all the obstacles reared up by 
man's sin, were removed by God's grace (Acts ii. 38, 
39 ; iii. 19-26) ; that in that very blood, which had 
been impiously shed, there was forgiveness of all sins. 
And let us notice that the king, instead of threaten- 
ing or rebuking, told his servants only to press the 
message with greater urgency. " Tell them which 
are bidden" so tell them that they cannot mistake, 
that " all things are ready" (" My oxen and my fat- 
lings are hilled" This would be a sign of the imme- 
diate nearness of the feast. Chardin : In the morn- 
ing the mutton and lamb are killed, which are to be 
eaten in the evening.) It was exactly thus with the 
Apostles ; thus Peter (Acts iii. 17), — " I wot that 
through ignorance ye did it ; " — how did they refuse 
to dwell upon the past sin, urging rather the present 
grace ! 

But the guests " made light of it, and went their 
ways, one to his farm, another to his merchandise" 
Nor is this the worst ; "The remnant took his servants, 
5 



98 THE MARRIAGE OF THE EXSTG ? S SON. 

and entreated them spitefully, and slew them? So 
there are ever in the world two kinds of despisers of 
the Gospel of God ; some who may say, " I pray thee 
have me excused," — others in whom it excites feel- 
ings of positive enmity. Those in the first class are 
again subdivided ; for they " went their ways, one to 
his farm, another to his merchandise." The question 
naturally arises, Did the Lord intend a distinction ? 
The dangers of having (" one to his farm or estate"), 
and of getting (" another to his merchandise"), though 
cognate, are yet not at all the same. There are those 
who are full, and there are those who are hoping to 
be full, of this world ; in neither has the divine hunger 
ever been awakened in the soul. 

" The remnant took his servants, and entreated 
them spitefidly, and slew them? The oppositions to 
the Gospel are not merely natural, they are also devil- 
ish. There are other evils in the heart besides world- 
liness, stirred up by it. It wounds men's pride, 
affronts their self-righteousness, and they visit on the 
bringers of it the hate they bear to itself. The Acts 
of the Apostles and later Scriptures bear abundant 
evidence of the three forms of outrage mentioned here. 
They " took his servants " (Acts iv. 3 ; v. 18 ; viii. 
3) ; they " entreated them spite/idly " (Acts v. 40 ; 
xiv. 5, 19 ; xvii. 5 ; xxi. 30 ; xxiii. 2) ; they " slew 
them " (Acts vii. 58 ; xii 3 ; compare Matt, xxiii. 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE KINOES SON. 99 

34). To this part of the parable, 2 Chron. xxx. 1-11 
forms an interesting parallel. — But one of the latest 
cavillers (Strauss) thinks it inconceivable that invited 
guests should act thus. May we not presume, how- 
ever, that a deep alienation from their king, with a 
readiness to rebel against him, existing long before, 
found its utterance here ? The little apparent motive 
makes their conduct almost monstrous, yet thus fitter 
to declare the monstrous fact that men should slay 
the messengers of God's grace, the ambassadors of 
Christ. 

"But when the king heard thereof \ he was wroth." 
The insult was intended for him ; and as such it was 
avenged ; for he " sent forth his armies" that is, say 
some, his avenging angels (Rev. xix. 14), or it may 
be the hosts of Rome (Dan. ix. 26), which were 
equally " his armies" since even ungodly men are 
men of God's hand, by whom He executes vengeance 
on other wicked (compare Isai. x. 5, &c). It may 
mean both combined, for when God's wrath is to be 
executed, the visible and the unseen instrumentalities 
are evermore leagued together. The natural eye sees 
only one, the spiritual eye sees also the other. The 
" city of those murderers " can be no other than Jeru- 
salem. It is their city, not any longer the city of the 
great King, who acknowledges it no more for His own. 
Compare " Your house " (Matt, xxiii. 38). 



100 THE MARRIAGE OF THE KINOES SON. 

" Then " (compare Acts xiii. 46) " saith he to his 
servants. The wedding is ready, hut they which were 
"bidden were not worthy P Their unworthiness con- 
sisted in their rejection of tlie invitation, even as the 
worthiness of those who did find a place at the festival 
consisted in their acceptance of the invitation. " Go 
ye therefore into the highways, and as many as ye shall 
find, bid to the marriage." Here the doctrine so 
hateful to Jewish ears (Acts xxii. 21, 22), the calling 
of the Gentiles, and that through the Jews' dis- 
obedience, is again plainly declared. (Rom. xi. ; 
Matt. viii. 10-12.) Hereupon the servants " went out 
into the highways, and gathered together all, as many 
as they found, both bad and good." In the spirit of 
this command, Philip went down to Samaria, and 
Peter baptized Cornelius and his company. When it 
is said that they gathered in " bad " as well as " good," 
we are not to see in it an explanation of the fact that 
one should hereafter be found at the festival without a 
wedding garment. On the contrary, many were 
" bad " when invited, who, through accepting the invi- 
tation, passed into the number of " good." Neither 
must the terms be pressed too far, for none (speaking 
with strict accuracy) are good, till they are incorpo- 
rated into the body of Christ. Yet, few will deny that 
there are different degrees of moral life, even before 
obedience to the call of the Gospel. Cornelius, or 



THE MAERIAGE OF THE KING'S SON. 101 

those mentioned in Rom. ii. 14, are instances of being 
" good" while by " had " we mean those who to man 
seem hopelessly gone in moral depravity (see 1 Cor. 
vi. 9-11). The invitation is accepted by some of both 
classes ; " The wedding was furnished with guests" 

There is still another solemn act of judgment to 
follow. There is to be a second separation. We have 
had the judgment on the avowed foe ; that on the false 
friend is yet to find place. But it is not the servants' 
office here, any more than in the Tares, to make it. 
" When the king came in to see the guests ', he saw there 
a man which had not on a wedding garment" Him 
he addresses, though mildly ; for it was yet to be seen 
whether he could explain his conduct. "Friend, how 
earnest thou in hither, not having a wedding gar- 
ment ? " But, " he was speechless" It was part of 
the state of wealthy persons in the East, to have great 
store of costly dresses laid up (Isa. iii. 6 ; 2 Kings 
x. 22). Chardin says, " The expenditure of the king 
of Persia for presents cannot be credited. The num- 
ber of dresses which he gives is infinite. His ward- 
robes are always full of them ; they are kept assort- 
ed in warehouses." We know, moreover, that costly 
dresses were often given as honorable presents, marks 
of especial favor (Gen. xlv. 22 ; 2 Kings v. 5) ; that 
they were then, as now, the most customary gifts ; and 
that upon marriage festivals (Est. ii. 18) gifts were dis- 



102 THE MAKRIAGE OF THE KING'S SOIST. 

tributed with the largest hand. If the gift was one 
of costly raiment, it would reasonably be expected 
that it should be worn at once, to add to the splendor 
and glory of the festal time — not to say that the re- 
jection of a gift, or the appearance of a slight put 
upon it, is ever esteemed as a contempt of the giver. 
But this guest w r as guilty of a further affront in ap- 
pearing at the festival in mean and sordid apparel. 
He did not feel that he had any thing to say for him- 
self; "he was speechless" literally, his mouth was 
stopped ; he stood self-condemned. "Then said the 
Icing to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and 
take him away, and cast him into outer darkness." 
Within the palace was light and joy, but without it 
was cold and darkness ; into this the unworthy guest 
was to be cast — and there for him, under the sense 
of his shame, would be " weeping and gnashing of 
teeth." 

But there is much in this latter part of the parable 
which demands an accurate inquiry. When does the 
king come in to see, or scrutinize the guests ? Not 
exclusively in the day of final judgment, but at every 
other judgment whereby hypocrites are revealed, or 
self-deceivers laid bare to themselves or to others, — at 
every time of trial, which is also in its nature a time 
of separation, a time when the thoughts of many 
hearts are disclosed. Some have suggested that by 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE KING S SON. 103 

the singleness of the guest without a wedding gar- 
ment, Judas may be pointed out. It certainly is not 
impossible, but it is hardly probable that any one 
person is intended, but rather under this one a great 
multitude, for the "few " said to be chosen in com- 
parison to the " many called" show that there had 
been a great sifting. ISTor is there any difficulty in 
this view ; as the righteous are one, being gathered 
under their one head, which is Christ, so the wicked 
are one, being gathered also under their one head, 
Satan. The mystical Babylon is one city no less than 
the mystical Jerusalem. 

It has been abundantly disputed what particular 
spiritual grace was lacking in him who was without 
the wedding garment ; the Romanists eagerly assert- 
ing it to be charity in opposition to faith. It was 
righteousness, both in its root of faith and in its flow- 
er of charity. According to Paul's image, here pe- 
culiarly appropriate, he had not " put on Christ " — 
in which putting on of Christ both faith and charity 
are included — the whole adornment of the new and 
spiritual man. Let us contemplate this guest as a 
self-righteous man, making and trusting in a right- 
eousness of his own, instead of believing in a right- 
eousness of Christ's, imputed and imparted, — or let us 
see in him a more ordinary sinner, who, with the 
Christian profession and privileges, is yet walking 



104 THE MAKEIAGE OF THE KEsVs SOX. 

after tlie lusts of the flesh, in sin ; he is, in either case, 
a despiser, counting himself good enough in himself, 
in the flesh and not in the spirit, to appear before 
God. But a time arrives when every man will dis- 
cover that he needs another covering for his soul. 
"Woe unto him who, like this guest, only discovers it 
when it is too late to provide himself with such ! It 
will be the light of God, as it was the king's word, 
which will at the last day reveal to him all the hidden 
things of his heart, the greater part of which he had 
been wilfully ignorant of. He will be speechless, in 
that day his mouth will be stopped. 

The ministering attendants, different from the ser- 
vants sent to invite the guests, can be no other than 
the angels (Matt. xiii. 41, 49). They are bidden to 
" hind him hand and foot" In this we may see 
the sign of the helplessness to which every striver 
against God is reduced. "Take him away" refers to 
the sinner's exclusion from the Church, now glorious 
and triumphant in heaven (Matt. xii. 48 ; 2 Thess. i. 
9). And not only is good lost, but he bears the pres- 
ence of evil. They shall " cast him into outer dark- 
ness" As light is the element of God's kingdom, so 
whatever is beyond that kingdom is darkness — the 
" outer darkness" into which all fall back who refuse 
to walk in the light of God's truth. This parable ter- 
minates with the weighty saying, " Many are called. 



THE MARRIAGE OF THE KING'S SON. 105 

hut few are chosen" In the " called" and not " cho- 
sen," must be included those others also that did not 
so much as seem to embrace the invitation, and who 
suffered in the destuction of their city. These words 
do but state a truth which had long before been find- 
ing its fulfilment in the kingdom of God, which, alas ! 
is always accomplishing there. They were fulfilled in 
the history of that entire generation which went out 
of Egypt — they were all " called" yet were not in the 
end " chosen" since with most of them God was not 
well pleased, &c, &c. (1 Cor. x. 1-10 ; Heb. iii. 7-19). 
Of the twelve who were sent to see the promised land, 
only Caleb and Joshua were " chosen" Of Gideon's 
army, all were " called" but only three hundred 
were " chosen" (Judg. 7). 

5* 



xm. 

THE TEH V I B G I H 8 . 

Ma::, xxv, 1-13. 

Thz to in this parable still - 

in the East The bride. aided by his fries 

u the children of the bride-chamber," Matt. ix. ] 

John iii. 29 >, goes to the honse of the bride, and with 

pomp and glad rings her : ) \m own home ; or 

if that be too small f; some place 

"ided for the hl >he is accompanied from 

her father's house by her young companions Ps. xlv. 

15 . while others, the virgin of the parable, meet the 

procession at some convenient place, and enter with 

the bridal company into the hall ._. As 

marriages in the East invariably took place, as ti 

I do, in the night, we are told that these virgins 

The nnml a not 

accidental ; it was ruled 3 ten 



THE TEN VIRGINS. 107 

Jews living in one place, there was a congregation, 
and there a synagogue ought to be built. 

The first question is, Who are meant by these vir- 
gins ? Some argue thus : All are called virgins ; all, 
therefore, belong to Christ. Some, from being un- 
ready at the last moment, suffered a long deferring of 
their blessedness ; but none were finally excluded 
from salvation. This interpretation is generally con- 
nected with the doctrine of the thousand years' reign 
of Christ on the earth, and a first resurrection. There 
might be some force in this argument, if others some- 
times undertook the office of welcoming the hridegroom, 
and yet the Lord had chosen to give that appellation 
to these, and to specify them as virgins. 

Virginity here is the profession of a pure faith, 
the soul guiltless of apostasy from God. By these 
virgins, then, we are to understand all who profess to 
be waiting for the Son of God from heaven, and who 
do not by their deeds openly deny that hope. They 
all " took their lamps, and went forth to meet the 
hridegroom" But, it is added, "jive of them were 
wise, and five of them were foolish ; " so called rather 
than good and had, because even in the foolish some 
good-will toward the truth is implied in going to 
meet the bridegroom. See both classes in 2 Pet. i. 
5-9. " They that were foolish took their lamps, 
hut took no oil with them ; hut the wise took oil in 



108 THE TEN VIRGINS. 

their vessels with their lamps." Here there is* a con- 
troversy between the Eomanists and Keformers, the 
latter asserting that it was the living principle of 
faith which was lacking, the Eomanists affirming that 
they had faith, but that not having works, it w^as 
" dead, being alone." But w T e may equally contem- 
plate the foolish virgins as those going through a 
round of external duties, without life ; or, on the other 
hand, as those who, confessing Christ with their lips, 
are not diligent in acts of humility, charity, &c. It 
is clear that whatever is merely outward in the Chris- 
tian profession is the lamp — whatever is inward and 
spiritual is the oil laid up in the vessels. In either case 
we must get beyond both works and faith to something 
higher — the informing Spirit of God, which prompts 
the works and quickens the faith, and of which oil is 
ever in Scripture the symbol (Exod. xxx. 22-33 ; 
Zech. iv. 2, 12 ; Heb. i. 9). 

The purpose of the parable is, to impress upon the 
members of the Church their need of vigilance. It 
adds much to the solemnity of the lesson, that by the 
foolish virgins are meant, not hypocrites, much less 
the openly ungodly, but the negligent in prayer, the 
slothful in work. Nor is it that they have no oil at 
all ; they have some, but not enough. In Matt. xiii. 
5, the seed springs up till the sun scorches it ; so here, 
the lamps burn on till their oil is exhausted. In each 



THE TEN VIRGINS. 109 

case there is something more than a merely external 
profession, conscious that it is only such ; there is the 
Christian life in manifestation, but not fed from deep 
internal fountains. But they are like the wise virgins, 
who recognize the fact that the Church may not very 
soon enter into its glory ; who foresee that they may 
have a long life of self-denial, before they shall be 
called from their labors, before the kingdom shall 
come unto them ; and who consequently feel that they 
must have principle as well as feeling to carry them 
on — that their first good impulses will carry them but 
a little way, unless they be purified and strengthened 
by a constant supply of the Spirit of God. 

When it is said that the bridegroom actually tar- 
ried, we may notice it as one of the many hints given 
by our Lord, of the delay of His return. If He had 
said plainly that He would not come for many centu- 
ries, then the first ages of the Church would have been 
deprived of that powerful motive to holiness and dili- 
gence supplied to each generation of the faithful by 
the possibility of the Lord's return in their time. Be- 
sides, prophecy is no fatalism, and it was always open 
to every age by faith and prayer to hasten that coming 
(2 Pet. iii. 12). 

The bridegroom tarrying, the virgins " all slum- 
bered and slept" By the fact of all sleeping, some 
have understood a certain unreadiness that will bo 



110 THE TEN VIKGINS. 

found in the whole Church — though, with a portion, 
this unreadiness will be easily removed, while that of 
others will be beyond remedy. But Augustine and 
nearly all the ancient interpreters make it the sleep 
of death. Perhaps by the sleeping is meant nothing 
more than that all, having done every thing which 
they thought needful in order to meet the bridegroom 
as they would wish, calmly and securely awaited his 
coming. The fact that the foolish virgins fell asleep, 
and only awoke at the cry of the advancing company, 
gives an easy explanation of their utter destitution of 
oil at the moment of their greatest need. And had 
the wise virgins been watching while the others slept, 
it would have seemed like a lack of love not to have 
warned their companions of the increasing dimness 
with which their lamps were burning, while yet help 
was possible. 

It was not until midnight that " there was a cry 
7nade, Behold the hridegroom cometh ; go ye out to 
meet him ; " — this cry was made either by a part of the 
retinue, or by the applauding multitude. As to its 
spiritual signification, most are agreed to find an al- 
lusion to " the voice of the Archangel and the trump 
of God " (1 Thess. iv. 16). Some, however, explain 
the cry as coming from those watchers in the Church 
by whom the signs of the times have been observed, 
and who would proclaim aloud the near advent of the 



THE TEN VIRGINS. Ill 

Heavenly Bridegroom, leading home the triumphant 
Church, and looking to be met by the members of His 
Church yet militant. It was a current opinion among 
the Jews, that the Messiah would come suddenly at 
midnight, as their forefathers obtained their deliver- 
ance at that very hour (Ex. xii. 29). But it is proba- 
ble that midnight is named simply because that is the 
time when deep sleep falls upon men ; and because 
thus the unexpectedness of Christ's coming (1 Thess. 
v. 2) is set forth in a lively manner. 

When the cry was heard, " then all those virgins 
arose, and trimmed their lamps" Every one at the 
last prepares to give an account of his works, seriously 
searches whether his life has been one which will 
have praise of God. Many put off this examination 
to the last moment, but beyond the day of judgment 
at farthest it cannot be delayed. "When the day of 
Christ comes, a flood of light shall pour into the dark- 
est corners of all hearts, so that self-deception will be 
no longer possible. Thus when the foolish virgins 
arose to trim their lamps, they discovered, to their 
dismay, that their lamps were about going out, and 
they had no more oil ; so that they were compelled to 
turn to their companions. " Give us of your oil, for 
our lamps are gone (or, as the margin says correctly), 
going out" The request and the refusal, like the dis- 
course between Abraham and Dives, are only the 



112 THE TEN VIRGINS. 

clothing of this truth — that we shall look in vain from 
men for that grace which God alone can supply. "We 
cannot borrow that which must be bought — won, that 
is, by earnest prayer and diligent endeavor. 

" But the wise answered, saying, Not so • lest there 
he not enough for us and you." Every man must live 
by his own faith. There is that which one can com- 
municate to another, and make himself the richer ; 
but there is also that which, being Divine, is in its 
very nature incommunicable from man to man, and 
which every man must obtain for himself. The wise 
virgins gave the best counsel they could when they 
said, "Go ye rather to them that sell, and huy for 
yourselves : " turn to them whom God has appointed 
in the Church, as channels of his gifts, or, as some 
would explain it, to the apostles and prophets, and 
learn from their teaching how to revive the work* of 
God in your souls, if yet there be time. We see in 
the words, " lest there he not enough for us and you" 
an argument against works of supererogation. The 
wise virgins did not feel that they had any thing over. 
All which they hoped to attain was, that their own 
lamps might burn bright enough to allow them to 
make part of the bridal company. 

While the others were absent, seeking to repair 
past neglect, " the bridegroom came, and they that 
were ready" they whose lamps were burning, " went 



THE TEN VIRGINS. 113 

in with him to the marriage, and the door was shut " 
— that Door, says one, which saith, " Him that com- 
eth to me, I will in no wise cast out." Behold how 
it is now open, which shall then be closed for ever- 
more. Murderers, publicans, harlots all come, and 
they are all received, but then — the door is shut. No 
one's penitence, no one's prayer, shall be any more 
admitted (Luke xvi. 26). The door once shut, " after- 
wards came the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, 
open to its / " having sought for the oil in vain, they 
come looking for mercy, when now it is the time of 
judgment. In the title "Lord " they claim to stand 
in an intimate relation with the bridegroom ; while 
in the repetition of the title, we see an evidence of 
their earnestness in seeking admission. But " he an- 
swered and said, Verily, L say unto you, L know you 
not? It is not that he disclaims outward knowledge, 
but he does not know them in that sense in which the 
Lord says, " I know My sheep, and am known of 
Mine." Augustine says profoundly, it is nothing else 
than " Ye know not Me." The issue is that the foolish 
virgins remain forever excluded from the marriage 
feast (Isa. lxv. 13). On this Bengel observes, that 
there are four classes of persons : those that have an 
abundant entrance into the kingdom ; those that are 
saved, as shipwrecked mariners with difficulty reach- 
ing the shore : On the other side, there are those who 



Ill 



THE TEX Til. 



go evidently the broad w destruction, whose 

Binfi go before them ; while again there are those who, 
though they seemed not far from the kingdom, yet 
miss it after all. Such was the fate of these five fool- 
ish virgins, and it is the most miserable of all. Lis: 
that may be our fate, the Lord says to us, " TT. 

(the rest of this verse has no place in the text : " and 
: being so, the only certain w eing ready 

upon that day, is that you be ready upon every day. 
L^nreadiness upon that day is without remedy. That 
which should have been the work of a life cannot be 
huddled into a moment. i Watch th , for ye 

It is quite true that there is one great coming of 
the Lord at the last ; yet not the less does He come in 
all the great crises of His Church. He came at Pen- 
tecost ; the prudent in Israel went in with Him to the 
feast, the foolish tamed without. He came at the 
•rmation, when the same thing took place. 

A few words may be said on the relation which 
this parable bears to the Marriage of the King's Son, 
and how it happens that in that the iinworthy guest 
actually finds admission to the marriage supper, while 
here the foolish virgins are not admitted to the feast. 
It is probable that the marriage festivities which are 
spoken of there, are different from these. In Ger- 



THE TEN VIRGINS. 115 

hard's words, " Those are celebrated in this life in the 
Church militant, these at the last day in the Church 
triumphant. To those, men are called by the trum- 
pet of the Gospel ; to these, by the trumpet of the 
Archangel. To those, who enter, can again go out 
from them, or be cast out ; who is once introduced to 
these, never goes out nor is cast out — wherefore it is 
said, ' The door was shut? Yt 



XIV. 

THE TALENTS. 

Matt. xxv. 14-30. 

"While the virgins were represented as waiting for 
their Lord, we have here the servants working for 
him. There by the end of the foolish virgins we were 
warned against declensions in the spiritual life ; here 
against slothfulness in our outward work. It is, there- 
fore, with good reason that the parable of the Virgins 
precedes this of the Talents, since the sole condition 
of a profitable outward work for God, is that the life 
of God be diligently maintained in the heart. Or we 
may consider the distinction between the two as this : 
that the virgins are the more contemplative, the ser- 
vants the more active working members of the Church. 
This is no doubt the same discourse with that in Mark 
xiii. 34. St. Luke (xix. 11) has recorded for us a par- 
able similar to this, but not identical. The time and 
place are different ; the one in Luke having been 



THE TALENTS. 117 

spoken when Jesus was drawing near to Jerusalem ; 
this, while seated on the Mount of Olives, the third 
day after His entry into the city. That was spoken to 
the multitude as well as to His disciples ; this in the 
innermost circle of His most trusted followers. The 
scope of the parable in Luke is twofold. It is ad- 
dressed in part to the giddy multitude, who were fol- 
lowing Jesus with high temporal expectations, and 
who when disappointed might turn and join in the 
cry, " Crucify him." He warns them, that His tri- 
umph, if not speedy, should yet be certain and terri- 
ble over His enemies, and it contains for them a double 
warning, that they be not prevented from attaching 
themselves to Him yet closer by the things which 
should befall Him at Jerusalem ; and that, least of all, 
they should suffer themselves to be numbered among 
His foes, since these were doomed to destruction. It 
has an admonition for the disciples, also, that this 
long period before His coming again in glory and 
power, was not to be for them a time of sloth, but a 
time in which to show all good fidelity to their ab- 
sent Lord. 

To no other than the Apostles was the parable of 
the Talents spoken. We must keep in mind the rela- 
tion of masters and slaves in antiquity. Slaves then 
were often allowed to engage freely in business, pay- 
ing a fixed yearly sum to their masters ; or, as here, 



118 THE TALEy 

they had money given them, wherewith to trade on 
his account, or with which to enlarg their business, 

bringing him in a share of the profits. Here, some- 
thing of the kin ;med. * 

called / 

(/oo r should not be "hi ranis;" for 

there is no emphasis in the original). It ' far 

which our Lord was about to travel, 
and that His servants might be furnished in his ab- 
sence, He was about to intrust to them many excel- 
lent gifts. The day of Pente: a the 
time when the goods, i. e. the spiritual powers and 
aties, were most abundantly communicated (Eph. 
iv. 8-12). Yet the Saviour had communicated much 
hem while He wa-s on earth (John xv. 3 and xx. 
2 _ . and from that day He has been ever delivering His 
goods to each successive generation of His serve. 
Hence, although this parable was 1 to 
the Ape reference to all times ; and 
ire intrusted with gifts, for which 
" will h: render an account, the parabl 
applicable to all. And these gifts are not spiritual 
. for wealth, reputation, abilit; _:ven to 
men to be turned to spiritual and for the use 
^aese also will a reckoning be held with their pos- 
There is a witnes- is in our word " talr 



THE TALENTS.. 119 

ent" which has come to signify any mental faculties 
or endowments whatever. 

But these gifts are in different proportions : " Unto 
one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another 
one : to every man according to his several ability P 
The natural is the ground upon which the spiritual 
is superinduced. Grace does not dissolve the ground- 
work of individual character (1 Cor. xii. 4-31 ; Ephes. 
iv. 16). The natural gifts are as the vessel, which may 
be either large or small, but in each case is filled. 
The one who received two talents might be unfitted 
for such a sphere of labor as he who had received five, 
but he was fully supplied for that to w T hich he was 
destined, for " there are diversities of gifts, but the 
same Spirit ; " and as in an army all are not generals, 
. so in the Church all are not furnished to be leaders. 
But in speaking of natural capacity, we must not for- 
get that comparative unfaithfulness will narrow the 
vessel, even as faithfulness has a tendency to dilate it. 

Having thus made all his arrangements, the lord 
" straightway took his journey" The three verses 
following embrace the whole period between the first 
and second coming of Christ. The two faithful ser- 
vants are the representatives of all that are diligent 
in their office and ministry, whatsoever that may be. 
In this parable the faithful servants multiply their un- 
equal sums in the same proportions : "lie that had re- 



120 .THE TALENTS. 

ceived the five talents, made them other five talents" 
&c, &c. ; while in the parable recorded by St. Luke, 
the servants multiply their equal sums in unequal 
proportions. The truth as brought out in St. Matthew 
is, that according -as we have received will it be ex- 
pected from us ; and that in St. Luke, that as men 
differ in fidelity and zeal, so will they differ in the 
amount of their spiritual gains. But, "He that had 
received one " talent, " went and digged in the earth, 
and hid his lord's money" — an apt image for neglect 
to use divinely imparted gifts. 

"After a long time the lord of those servants comet h 
and reckoneth with the?n." In the joyful coming for- 
ward of the faithful servants, we see an example of 
boldness in the day of judgment ; they had something 
to show, as Paul earnestly desired that he might have 
(1 Thess. ii. 19 ; 2 Cor. i. 14 ; Fhil. iv. 1). In St. 
Matthew the servant says, "Behold I have gained" 
&c, while in St. Luke it is, " Thy pound hath gain- 
ed ; " thus they make up the speech of St. Paul, " I — 
yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me." 
The commendation of the servants is in the same lan- 
guage, even as their gain was in the same proportion 
to their talents — five for five and two for two. "Enter 
thou into the joy of thy lord. " — that is, become a 
sharer of my joy. Leighton says very beautifully 
here : " It is but little we can receive here, some drops 



THE TALENTS. 121 

of joy that enter into us / but there we shall enter into 
joy, as vessels put into a sea of happiness." No doubt 
the underlying image is that the master celebrates his 
return by a great festival. It is well known that 
under certain circumstances the master's inviting his 
slave to sit down with him at table, did itself consti- 
tute the act of manumission ; henceforth he was free. 
Perhaps there may be here alius? a to something of 
the kind. " Henceforth I call you not servants," &c. 
(John xv. 15 ; Luke xii. 37 ; Rev. iii. 20.) 

But he to whom only one talent had been given, 
is the one who is found faulty — a solemn warning to 
how many, since this excuse might occur to such : 
" So little is committed to my charge, that it does not 
signify what becomes of it." But the Lord looks for 
, fidelity in little as well as in much. It is true he had 
not been guilty in the same way as the Prodigal Son 
wasting his substance, nor was he ten thousand talents 
in debt like the Unmerciful Servant ; but this parable 
is not for those who are by their lives denying that 
they count Christ as their master at all : the warn- 
ing is for them who hide their talent. There is great 
danger that such persons may deceive themselves ; for 
there is a show of humility in the excuses often made 
by persons so inclined : " The care of my own soul is 
sufficient to occupy me wholly ; while I am employed 

about the souls of others, I may perhaps be losing my 
6 



122 THE TALENTS. 

own." This was repeatedly the case in the history of 
the early Church. Augustine, on the other hand, 
makes striking use of this parable, while speaking of 
the temptation of which he was conscious, to withdraw 
from active labor, and to cultivate a solitary piety : 
" Nothing is better, nothing sweeter," he says, " than 
to search the divine storehouse with none to disturb. 
To preach, to argue, to build up, to take care of each 
one, is a great load, great toil ; who would not escape 
from it % But the Gospel deters." 

The root out of which this mischief grows, is laid 
bare in the words, "Zord, I knew thee, that thou art 
a hard man." It has its rise, as almost every thing 
else that is evil, in a false view of the character of 
God. This speech is not a mere excuse, but it is 
the out-speaking of the heart. The churl accounted 
his lord churlish, thought him even such an one as 
himself. But to know God's name is to trust in Him. 
They indeed who undertake any work for God know 
that they shall commit many mistakes, and perhaps 
sins, which they might avoid, if they declined the 
work altogether ; but would they not by so doing tes- 
tify that they thought that their Master was a hard 
lord, making no allowances, and never accepting the 
will for the deed, but watching to take advantage of 
the least failure on the part of His servants ? 

In these words, "reaping where thou hast not 



THE TALENTS. 123 

sown, and gathering where thou hast not strawed" he 
gives evidence that he has also entirely mistaken the 
nature of the work to which he was called. (" Where 
thou hast not strawed" or better, "scattered" with 
the fan on the barn-floor, there expectest thou to " gath- 
er " with the rake, — as one who will not be at the trou- 
ble to purge away the chaff, yet expects to gather in 
the golden grain.) He thought it something to be 
done/br God, instead of being a work to be wrought in 
Him, or rather which He w r ould work in and through 
His servants. Aquinas says truly, " God requireth 
from man nothing but the good which Himself hath 
sowed in us ; " and Augustine, in a prayer : " Give 
what Thou dost command, and command what Thou 
wilt." 

The servant goes on to say, " I was afraid; " he 
justifies his timidity ; he feared to trade, lest he should 
lose all, and thus incur his master's displeasure. u Zo, 
there thou hast that is thine" In reality, God's gifts 
cannot be so restored, for keeping the negative pre- 
cepts only is not enough. But his lord answers him 
on his own grounds, not seeking to justify himself 
from the charges made against him : "Thou wicked, 
and slothful servant ; thou Jcnewest that I reap where 
I sowed not, and gather where J had not strawed / yet 
even then thou art not cleared ; for thou oughtest to 
have done me justice still : Thou oughtest therefore to 



124 THE TALENTS. 

have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my 
coming I should have received mine own with usury" 
This is explained by Olshausen thus : " Those timid 
natures which are not suited to independent labor in 
the kingdom of God, are here counselled to attach 
themselves to other stronger characters, under whose 
leading they may lay out their gifts to the service of 
the Church." 

His doom is now pronounced. First, "Take there- 
fore the talent from him" We have here a limita- 
tion of Rom. xi. 29. This deprivation may be consid- 
ered partly as directly penal, and partly as the natu- 
ral consequence of his sloth ; for as in the natural 
world a limb never exercised loses its strength, so the 
gifts of God unexercised fall away from us : "From 
him that hath not shall he taken aioay even that which 
he hath" On the other hand, the gifts of God are 
multiplied by being laid out : " Unto every one vjhich 
hath shall he given, and he shall have abundance " 
(Heb. vi. 7). And not only is this the case, but that 
very gift which the one loses the other receives. We 
see this continually ; by the providence of God, one 
steps into the place and opportunities which another 
has left unused, and so has forfeited (1 Sam. xv. 28). 
And herein is mercy, that it is not done all at once, 
but little by little ; and there is always a warning, 
" to strengthen the things which remain, that are ready 



THE TALENTS. 125 

to die." But this servant had never seen his danger 
until it was too late ; and he not merely should forfeit 
his talent, but also, " Cast ye the unprofitable servant 
into outer darkness / there shall he wailing and gnash- 
ing of teeth" 

The foolish virgins erred through a vain over-con- 
fidence, this servant through an under-confidence that 
was equally vain and sinful. Thus we see the two 
opposing rocks on which faith is in danger of making 
shipwreck. Those virgins thought it too easy a thing 
to serve the Lord — this servant thought it too hard. 
The class to which they belong, need such warnings 
as this : " Strait is the gate and narrow is the way 
that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it " 
(Matt. vii. 14 ; Phil. ii. 12 ; Matt, xvi. 24). He was 
representative of a class needing the following : " Ye 
have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear " 
(Kom. viii. 15 ; Heb. xii. 18, 22, 24). 



XY. 

THE SEED GROWING SECRETLY. 

Mark iv. 26-29. 

This is the only parable which is peculiar to St. 
Mark. It seems to occupy the place of the Leaven, 
and besides what it has in common with that parable, 
declares further, that this word of the kingdom has 
that in it which will allow it to be safely left to itself. 
The main difficulty is this : "Who is this man casting 
seed into the ground ? — is it the Son of Man Himself, 
or those ministers and others who declare the Gospel of 
the kingdom ? If we say that the Lord means Him- 
self, how can it be said that He knows not how the 
seed springs and grows up ? since it is only by His 
Spirit in the heart that it grows at all. Neither can 
He be compared* to one who sows seed, and then goes 
away and is occupied with other business ; for He is 
not merely the author and finisher of our faith, but 
also conducts it through all its intermediate stages. 



THE SEED GROWING SECRETLY. 127 

Or, on the other hand, if we say that by the sower is 
meant one of the inferior messengers of the truth, how 
shall we reconcile the words at ver. 29, " When the 
fruit is brought forth, immediately he putteth in the 
siclcle, because the harvest is come " t Of whom can 
this be said, save of the Son of Man, the Lord of the 
harvest ? So that, on the one hand, we meet a diffi- 
culty when we call the sower the Son of Man, by at- 
tributing to Him something less than appertains to 
Him ; and, on the other hand, if we take the sower to 
be inferior ministers, we attribute to them something 
which can only belong rightly to Him. I cannot see 
any perfectly satisfactory way of escape from this per- 
plexity. It will hardly do to say that ver. 27 belongs 
only to the drapery of the parable, for it is the very 
point and moral of the whole. 

I will, how r ever, take the parable as having refer- 
ence in the first place, though not exclusively, to the 
Lord Himself. It begins thus : " So is the kingdom of 
God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground, 
and should sleep, and rise night and day." By these 
last words is signified an absence of after-carefulness ; 
he sleeps securely by night, and by day is about his 
ordinary business. Meanwhile, the " seed should 
spring and grow up, he hioweth not howP These 
words have no difficulty, so long as we apply them to 
those who are teachers in the Church. They are here 



128 THE SEED GROWING SECRETLY. 

bidden to have faith in the seed which they sow, for 
it is the seed of God ; when it has found place in a 
heart, they are not to be tormented with anxiety con- 
cerning the final issue, but to have confidence in its 
indwelling power ; for God undertakes to maintain its 
life. They are also to be content that the seed should 
grow up without their knowing exactly how ; the 
mystery of the life of God in any heart is unfathom- 
able. It has a law indeed, u First the Made, then the 
ear" &c, &c, but that law is hidden. It is not, of 
course, meant that they are not to follow up their 
work ; but then it is a different thing to impart life, 
and to impart the sustenance for life. 

But in what sense can that which is said of leaving 
the seed to itself be affirmed of Christ ? Olshausen 
suggests the following : It is true, he says, that the 
spiritual life of men is never at any time without the 
care and watchfulness of the Lord who first gave that 
life ; yet there are two moments when He may be 
said especially to visit the soul — at the beginning of 
spiritual life, which is the seed-time, and again when 
He takes His people to Himself, which is their time 
of harvest. Between these times, the work of the 
Lord is going forward — not, indeed, without the daily 
supply of His Spirit, but He does not appear so plain- 
ly as at those two cardinal moments. We see this 
even more in the growth of the Universal Church. 



THE SEED GROWING SECRETLY. 129 

The Lord, at His first coming in the flesh, planted a 
Church in the world, which having done, He withdrew 
Himself. Often since that time has it appeared to 
man as if the Church w r ere at its last gasp, yet He has 
not come forth. He has helped it to surmount all ob- 
stacles, but without visible interference. He has left 
the divine seed to grow on by night and by day, and 
only when the harvest of the world is ripe, when the 
number of the elect is accomplished, will He appear 
the second time unto salvation, reaping the earth, and 
gathering the wheat into His barns. 

Our Lord's object in using the words, "The earth 
bring eth forth fruit of herself" is pointedly to exclude 
the continuous agency of the sower. The three stages 
of spiritual growth implied in the " blade" " the ear" 
" the full com in the ear" suggest a comparison with 
1 John ii. 12-14. "With ver. 29 we may compare Rev. 
xiv. 14, 15. The entire parable gives the same en- 
couragement which St. Peter means to give when he 
addresses the faithful in Christ Jesus (1 Pet i. 23-25). 

6* 



XVI. 

THE TWO DEBTORS. 

Luke vii. 41-43. 

It is tolerably certain that the accounts of our 
Lord's anointing, given in Matt. xxvi. 7, Mark xiv. 
8, and John xii. 3, all refer to the same event. But 
whether St. Luke narrates the same circumstance, and 
whether the woman here, " which was a sinner" be 
Mary, the sister of Lazarus, which must then follow, 
is a more difficult question. There are three main ar- 
guments for the identity of all the relations : first, the 
name of Simon as the giver of the feast ; secondly, 
the seeming unlikelihood that twice the Lord should 
have been so unusually honored ; and thirdly, the 
coincidence that in each case some one should have 
taken offence. 

. But it may be answered that the name Simon was 
of too frequent use among the Jews, for any stress to 
be laid upon the sameness of the name. Again, the 



THE TWO DEBTORS. 131 

anointing of the feet, though not so common as the 
anointing of the head, still was not without prece- 
dent ; the only remarkable coincidence here being 
that each of these women should have wiped our 
Lord's feet with the hairs of her head. But if we take 
it as an expression of homage and love, then its re- 
currence is nowise wonderful. And such it is ; in 
the hair is the glory of the woman ; in the human per- 
son it is highest in place and honor, while the feet are 
the lowest. This service, then, was but the outward 
expression of the inward truth, that the chiefest of 
man's glory was lower than the lowest that belonged 
to the Son of God. Yet it was an honor with some 
differences in the motives which called it forth. In 
the case of Mary, the sister of Lazarus, the impelling 
cause was intense gratitude : Christ had crowned His 
spiritual gifts to her by giving back her beloved bro- 
ther ; the costly ointment was a thank-offering, and 
as less of shame was mingled in her feelings, she 
anointed her Lord's head as well as His feet. But it 
was the earnest yearning after forgiveness that brought 
this woman to the feet of Jesus, and she, in her deep 
shame, presumed to anoint only His feet, standing the 
while behind Him ; and in kissing them and wiping 
them with the hair of her head, she realized the bid- 
ding of St. Paul (Bom. vi. 19). Finally, although in 
each case there was an offence taken, yet in the one 



132 THE TWO DEBTORS. 

case, it is the giver of the feast who is offended — and 
he at our Lord ; while in the other it is principally 
Judas — and he against the woman rather. To all this 
it may be added, that there is no probability that the 
Mary of the happy family in Bethany had ever been 
one to whom the title of " sinner" as here meant, 
could be applied. The passage, then, containing the 
parable of the Two Debtors, will be considered without 
any reference to the accounts in the other Gospels, of 
which, indeed, I have the firmest conviction that it is 
altogether independent. 

Our Lord having been invited to the house of a 
Pharisee, had there " sat down to meat" That a wo- 
man, uninvited, and of such a character, should have 
pressed into the chamber, and should have been per- 
mitted to offer such homage to the Saviour, may at 
first sight appear strange ; but it can easily be ex- 
plained when we remember that in the East the meals 
are often almost public. "We must remember her 
present earnestness, too. In the thoughts which passed 
through Simon's heart, we see the true spirit of a 
Pharisee : of one who would have said, had the wo- 
man dared to approach him, " Stand by thyself, for I 
am holier than thou ! " In the conclusion to which 
he came, " This man, if he were a prophet, would 
have known who and what manner of woman this is," 
we trace the current belief of the Jews, that discerning 



THE TWO DEBTORS. 133 

of spirits was an especial mark of the great prophet, 
the Messiah — a belief founded on Isa. xi. 3, 4. Thus 
]STathanael (John i. 48, 49 ; see also John iv. 29). The 
Pharisee thought : Either he does not know the char- 
acter of this woman, in which case he lacks the dis- 
cernment of a true prophet ; or if he knows it, and 
yet accepts a service at such hands, he is lacking in 
that holiness, which also is a mark of a prophet of 
God. But the Lord satisfied him of His discernment 
by laying his finger on the tainted spot of his heart. 
"Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee" He could 
not refuse to listen — " Master, say on." With this 
leave to speak, the parable is uttered : 

"There was a certain creditor which had two debt- 
ors : the one owed jive hundred pence, and the other 
fifty. And when they had nothing to pay, he frank- 
ly forgave them loth" God is the creditor, men the 
debtors, and sins the debts. " Tell me, therefore, 
which of them will love him most ? Simon answer- 
ed, I suppose that he to whom he forgave most." 
Difficulties meet us when we come to the application 
of these words. Are we to conclude that there is any 
advantage in having multiplied transgressions? the 
more sin, the more love? And to understand the 
passage thus, would it not be to affirm a moral contra- 
diction — to affirm that the deeper man's heart is sunk 



134 THE TWO DEBTORS. 

in selfishness and sensuality, the more capable he will 
be of the highest and purest love ? 

But all will be clear if we consider the debt, not as 
so many outward transgressions, but as so much con- 
science of sin. Often they who have the least of what 
the world calls crime (for the world knows nothing of 
sin), have yet the deepest sense of the exceeding sin- 
fulness of sin, and, therefore, are the most thankful 
for the gift of a Eedeemer. But he who has little for- 
given is not necessarily he who has sinned little, but 
he who is lacking in any strong conviction of the 
great evil of sin, who has never learned to take home 
his sin to himself ; and who, therefore, while he may 
have no great objection to the plan of salvation, yet 
thinks he could have done nearly or quite as well 
without Christ. He loves little, because he has little 
sense of deliverance wrought for him. 

Simon himself was an example of one who thus 
loved little ; and he had betrayed this lack of love in 
small yet insignificant matters. He had withheld 
from his guest the ordinary Eastern courtesies, had 
neither given Him water for His feet (Gen. xviii. 4), 
nor offered Him the kiss of peace (Gen. xxii. 4), nor 
anointed His head with oil, as was customary at festi- 
vals (Ps. xxiii. 5). But this woman had far exceeded 
them. She had washed the Saviour's feet with her 
tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head ; she 



THE TWO DEBTOES. 135 

had multiplied kisses, and those upon the feet ; while 
she had with precious ointment anointed even his 
feet. 

" Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are 
many, are forgiven : for she loved much ; hut to whom 
Utile is forgiven, the same loveth little" There is 
here an embarrassment, how to reconcile these words 
with the parable, where the debtor is said to love 
much, because forgiven much, and not to be forgiven 
much, because he loved much ; and again, to make 
them agree with the Scriptural doctrine, that we love 
God because He first loved us — that faith, and not 
love, is the pre-requisite for forgiveness. 

But the words, "for she loved much," may best 
be explained by considering what the strong sorrow 
for sin, and earnest desire for forgiveness, mean, and 
from whence they arise ; surely, from this, from the 
deep feeling in the sinner's heart, that by his sins he 
has separated himself from that God who is Love, 
while yet he cannot do without His love ; from the 
feeling that the heart must be permitted to love Him, 
and be again assured of His love toward it, else it will 
die. Sin unforgiven is felt to be the great barrier to 
this ; and the desire after forgiveness, if it be not a 
mere selfish desire for personal safety, is the desire for 
the removal of this barrier, that so the heart may be 
free to love, and to know itself beloved again ; it is 



136 THE TWO DEBTORS. 

the flower of love desiring to bloom, but afraid of the 
chilling atmosphere of the anger of God, — but which 
will do so at once, when the genial spring of His love 
succeeds. In this sense that woman " loved much" 
On account of this, which in fact was faith (ver. 50), 
she obtained forgiveness of her sins. This sense of 
emptiness, this feeling and acknowledgment that a 
life apart from God is not life, but death, with the 
conviction that in God is fulness, which He is willing 
to impart to all who bring the empty vessel of the 
heart to be filled by Him ; this, call it faith, or initia- 
tory love, is what that Pharisee, in his legality and 
pride, had scarcely at all, and therefore he derived 
little or no good from communion with Christ. But 
that woman had it in large measure, and bore away 
the best blessing, even the forgiveness of her sins. In 
her it was proved true that " where sin abounded, 
grace did much more abound." 



XYII. 

THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 

Luke x. 30-37. 

We need not suppose that the lawyer who " stood 
up," and proposed to our Lord the question out of 
which this parable grew, had any malicious intentions, 
nor even a desire to perplex and silence the Saviour. 
The question, " "What shall I do to inherit eternal 
life ? " was not an ensnaring one. He is said, indeed, 
to have put the question to Christ, " tempting him." 
But to tempt properly means to make trial of, and 
whether the tempting be good or evil, is determined 
by the motive from which it springs. Thus God 
tempts man, when he puts him to the proof, that He 
may show him what is in himself (James i. 12) ; He 
tempts man to bring out his good, and to strengthen 
it (Gen. xxii. 1) ; or if to bring his evil out, it is that 
the man may himself know it, and watch and pray 
against it: only Satan tempts man purely to bring 



138 THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 

out his evil. Compare Matt. xxii. 35 with Mark xii. 
28-34 — both records of the same conversation. In 
the second account, our Lord bears witness of the 
questioner, that he was a seeker after truth. This 
lawyer would fain make proof of the skill of the Gali- 
lean teacher, and thus brought forward the question 
of questions. 

Our Lord in substance says, — The question you 
ask is already answered. " How readest thou ? " That 
the lawyer should at once lay his finger on the great 
commandment which Christ Himself had quoted on 
that other occasion, showed spiritual insight ; that he 
was superior to the common range of his countrymen. 
He cites Dent. vi. 5 in connection with Lev. xix. 18. 
Thereupon our Lord says, " Thou hast answered right ; 
this do, and thou shalt live," — let what thou knowest 
pass from dead knowledge into living practice, and it 
will be well. Still the lawyer would justify himself: 
u True, I am to love my neighbor as myself; but who 
is my neighbor ? " This very question, like Peter's 
(Matt, xviii. 21), was one involving a wrong condition 
of mind. He who asked, " Whom shall I love ? " 
proved that he did not understand what love meant ; 
for he wished to have it known beforehand where he 
should be at liberty to stop, while the very essence of 
love is, that it has no limit, except in its own inability 



THE GOOD SAMAKITAN. 139 

to proceed further, that it is a debt which we must be 
forever paying (Rom. xiii. 8). 

The Saviour's reply is wonderful in its adaptation, 
leading him to take off his eye from the object to 
which love is to be shown, and turning it inward upon 
him who is to show the love ; for this is the key to 
the following parable : "A certain man went down 
from Jerusalem to Jericho." These words are used 
not merely because Jerusalem stood higher than Jeri- 
cho, but because the going to Jerusalem, as the me- 
tropolis, was always spoken of as going up (Acts xviii. 
22). The distance between the two cities was about 
a hundred and fifty stadia (eighteen miles), the road 
lying through a desolate and rocky region. St. Je- 
rome mentions that a particular part of this road was 
called the red or the bloody way, so much blood had 
there been shed by robbers. Such as these " stripped 
him of his raiment, wounded him, and departed, leav- 
ing him half dead" 

As he lay bleeding in the road, " hy chance " 
(or " by coincidence," as the original would imply), 
" there came down a certain priest that way" Thus 
is shown the fine weaving in, by God's providence, 
of the threads of different men's lives into one com- 
mon woof. He brings one man's emptiness into re- 
lation with another's fulness. Many of our calls to 
love are of this kind ; and perhaps they are those 



110 THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 

which we are most in danger of missing, by failing 
to see in tliem the finger of God. This priest missed 
his opportunity. He may have been to Jerusalem, 
accomplishing his term of service, and now on his way 
home ; but he was one who had never learned, " I 
will have mercy, and not sacrifice." For " whe?i he 
saw him, he passed by on the other side." So also 
did a Levite, but his conduct was even worse ; for he 
looked, and saw the miserable condition of the man, 
and yet afforded him no assistance. Thus did these 
two, who made their boast, and were the express in- 
terpreters, of the law. (Compare Deut. xxii. 1 ; Ex. 
xxiii. 5.) Here not a brother's ox, but a brother him- 
self, was lying in his blood, and they hid themselves 
from him (Isa. lviii. 7). 

u JSut a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came 
where he was" He was exposed to the same dangers 
as the others, and might have made the same excuses : 
the sufferer was beyond the help of man, the robbers 
were perhaps not far distant ; if found near him, he 
might be accused of being the murderer. But he 
heeded not these selfish fears, for " he had compassion 
on him" It was left to the excommunicated Samari- 
tan, whose name even was a by-word of contempt 
among the Jews, to show what love was ; and this 
not to a fellow-countryman, but to one of a hostile 
race, one that cursed his people. All the influences 



THE GOOD SAMAEITAN. 141 

which had surrounded him, probably, would have led 
him to repay hate with hate. For if Jews heaped in- 
dignities on Samaritans, yet Samaritans were not be- 
hindhand in insults to Jews. Josephus says that they 
sometimes fell upon and murdered those who were 
going to Jerusalem. 

But the heart of this Samaritan was not hardened, 
although every thing must have been at work to steel 
it against the distresses of a Jew. The minuteness 
of the details here is exceedingly touching. He 
" hound up his wounds" no doubt with portions of 
his own garments, having first poured in wine to 
cleanse them, and then oil to allay their smart ; these 
two being costly, but highly esteemed, remedies 
throughout the East. All this took some time ; but 
. after he had thus revived in him the dying spark of 
life, he " set him on his own least, and brought him to 
an inn" and there again renewed his attention. Nor 
did he feel as if he had done all, for " he took out two 
pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, 
Take cave of him, and whatsoever thou spendes' 1 more, 
when I come again I will repay thee" 

Beautiful as this parable is, taken according to the 
letter only, and full of incentives to active mercy and 
love, yet we find much more beauty, and much greater 
motives to love, when we see the work of Christ por- 
trayed to us here. Christ, He who accounted Himself 



112 THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 

every man's brother, fulfilled the law of love in its 
largest extent, showing how we ought to love, and 
whom ; and inasmuch as it is faith in His love towards 
us, which alone causes us to love one another fervent- 
ly, He might well propose Himself and His act in suc- 
coring the perishing humanity, as the everlasting pat- 
tern of self-denying love. The present leaders of the 
theocracy had not healed the sick, nor sought that 
which was driven away (Ezek. xxxiv. 4), while He 
had bound up the broken-hearted (Isa. Ixi. 1), and 
poured the balm of consolation into wounded spirits. 
The traveller, then, is personified human nature, 
or Adam as the representative of the race. He has 
left Jerusalem, the heavenly city, and is travelling 
towards Jericho, the city under a curse (Josh. vi. 26). 
But he no sooner turns his desires towards the world, 
than he falls under the power of him who is both a 
robber and a murderer (John viii. 44), and by him is 
stripped of his original righteousness, and left griev- 
ously wounded, every sin a gash from which the life- 
blood of his soul is flowing. Yet he is not altogether 
dead. "When the angels fell, it was by a self-deter- 
mining act of their own will, with no outward tempt- 
ation, and therefore there was no possible redemption 
for them. But man is " half dead ; " he has still a 
conscience ; evil is not his good, however little he may 
be able to resist its temptations ; he still feels as if he 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 143 

had lost something, and has at times a longing for 
that which is lost. As concerns his own power to 
help himself, his case is desperate, but not when taken 
in hand by a Divine Physician. And who else but 
such an one can give back to him what he has lost ? 
Can the law do it ? " If there had been a law which 
could have given life, verily righteousness should 
have been by the law " (Gal. iii. 21). The priest and 
the Levite — the law and the sacrifices — were alike 
powerless to help. Gillebert says : " Abraham passed 
us by, for he was himself justified in the faith of one 
to come. Moses passed us by, for he was not the 
giver of grace, but of the law. Aaron the priest 
passed us by, and by sacrifices which he offered was 
unable to purge the conscience from dead works to 
serve the living God. Thus patriarch, prophet, and 
priest passed us by. Only that true Samaritan was 
moved with compassion, and poured oil, that is, Him- 
self, into the heart, purifying all hearts by faith" 
(Rom. viii. 3). 

"We might say with Chrysostom, that the wine is 
the blood of the Passion, the oil the anointing of the 
Holy Spirit. On the binding up of the wounds, we 
notice that the Sacraments are often spoken of in the 
early Church as the ligaments for the wounds of the 
soul. But Augustine says : " It is the stanching of 
the ever-flowing fountain of evil in the heart." "When 



144 THE GOOD SAMAKITAN. 

we find the Samaritan walking by the side of his own 
beast, upon which he had placed the wounded man, 
we are reminded of Him who for our sakes became 
poor, that we through His poverty might be rich. 
We may see in the inn the figure of the Church, in 
which the healing of souls is ever going forward. We 
find Christ's work spoken of in the Scriptures as a 
work of healing (Mai. iv. 2 ; Hos. xiv. 4; Ps. ciii. 
3 ; Matt. xiii. 15). 

And if, like the Samaritan, He is not always in 
body present with those whose cure He has begun, 
He yet makes a rich provision of grace for them dur- 
ing His absence. As the Samaritan took money and 
gave to the host, saying, " Tcike care of him" even 
so the Lord Jesus said to Peter, and in him to all his 
fellow-apostles, having first richly furnished them for 
their work, " Feed my sheep," &c. To all that suc- 
ceed them, also, He has committed an economy of the 
truth, that they may dispense the mysteries of God, 
for the health and salvation of His people. And as 
it was said to the host, " Whatsoever thou spendest 
more, when I come again I will repay thee / " so the 
Lord has promised that no labor shall be in vain in 
Him (1 Peter v. 2, 4). 

It is with exceeding great w r isdom that the Saviour, 
having brought this parable to an end, reverses the 



THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 145 

question of the lawyer, and asks, " Which now of these 
three, thickest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell 
among the thieves f " He had asked, " "Who is the 
neighbor to whom I am bound to show love ? " The 
Lord's lesson was this: it is not the object which 
is to determine the love, but that love has its own 
measure in itself ; it is like the sun, which does not 
ask on what it shall shine, or what it shall warm, but 
shines and warms by the very law of its own being, 
so that there is nothing hidden from its light and heat. 
The lawyer had said, " What marks a man as my 
neighbor ? " The Lord holds up before him a despised 
Samaritan, who, instead of asking that question, freely 
exercised love towards one who certainly had none of 
the signs such as the lawyer conceived might mark 
out a neighbor in his sense of the word. The parable 
is not a reply to the question, but to the spirit from 
which the question proceeded. It was an appeal to 
a better principle in the querist's heart, from the nar- 
row and unloving theories in which he had been 
trained. 

And now in answer to our Lord's question, 
" Which was neighbor ? " he says, "He who showed 
mercy on him." " Go" the Lord says, " and do thou 
likewise" He would make the lawyer aware of the 
great gulf between his knowing and his doing — how 
7 



146 THE GOOD SAMARITAN. 

little his actual exercise of love kept pace with his 
knowledge of the debt of love due from him to his 
fellow-men, a point on which his question, " Who is 
my neighbor ? n shows a secret misgiving. 



xvm. 

THE FRIEND AT MIDNIGHT. 
Luke xi. 5-8. 

The disciples had just asked, " Lord, teach us to 
pray," and our Saviour graciously gives them that 
perfect form which is the treasure of the Church. 
But He also instructs them in what spirit they are to 
.pray, even in that of persevering faith. There is this 
difference between this parable and that of the Unjust 
Judge, that here the selfishness of man is set against 
the liberality of God, while there it is his unrighteous- 
ness tacitly contrasted with the righteousness of God. 
The conclusion is, that if selfish man can yet be won 
by importunity to give, how much more certainly 
shall the bountiful Lord bestow, " who both is sleep- 
less, and when we sleep rouses us to pray " (Augus- 
tine). Here, also, it is prayer for the needs of others 
in which we are bidden to be instant ; while there it 
is rather for our own needs. Yet we must not, in 



148 THE FRIEND AT MIDNIGHT. 

either case, urge the illustration too far ; for though 
God may present Himself to us in aspects similar to 
these, yet His is only a seeming neglect, while theirs 
is real. We see an illustration of this seeming un- 
willingness in the conversation with the Syro-Phoeni- 
cian woman (Matt. xv. 21), and also in the history of 
Jacob wrestling with the angel (Gen. xxxii. 24-32). 

" Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go 
unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, 
lend one three loaves : for a friend of mine, in his 
journey, is come to me, and I have nothing to set he- 
fore him" I do not see any deeper meaning in 
these words than lies on the surface ; yet they have 
given rise to many beautiful allegorical interpreta- 
tions. It has been said that the guest is the spirit of 
man, weary of wandering, suddenly desiring heavenly 
food. But the host, that is, man in his sensual nature, 
has nothing to give, and is here taught to appeal to 
God, that he may receive spiritual nourishment for 
the soul. Vitringa explains it thus : The guest is the 
heathen world ; the host, the servants and disciples of 
Jesus, who are taught that they can only nourish it 
with the bread of life, as they themselves receive it 
from God, — which they must therefore seek with all 
perseverance. In like manner, of the three loaves it 
has been said that the host craving this number, 




THE FEIEND AT MIDNIGHT. 149 

craves the knowledge of the Trinity, or, perhaps, the 
three gifts of the Spirit — faith, hope, and charity. 

The words which he from within replies, "Trouble 
me not, the door is now shut" mean more than that it 
is merely closed ; it is barred and fastened, and this is 
an unseasonable hour. "I say unto you, though he 
will not rise and give him because he is his friend, 
yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give 
him as many as he needeth" The word translated 
" importunity" means rather " shamelessness" But 
this shamelessness is mitigated by the thought that it 
is not for himself, but that he may not be wanting in 
the rites of hospitality to another. Abraham's con- 
versation with God (Gen. xviii. 23-33) illustrates it. 
Through this pertinacity he finally obtains, not merely 
three, but " as many as he needeth / " like the Syro- 
Phcenician woman : " Be it unto thee even as thou 
wilt." Augustine observes, that he who would not at 
first send even one of his house, now rises himself, and 
supplies the wants of his friend. 

The parable concludes with a commendation of 
the same duty of persevering prayer : "And I say 
unto you, ash, and it shall be given you / seek, and ye 
shall find l knock, and it shall be opened unto you" 
This is not mere repetition, for to seek is more than to 
ask, and to knock is more than to seek; and thus an 
exhortation is given to increasing urgency in prayer, 



150 the freestd at mtcotght. 

even till the suppliant carries away the blessing which 
God is only waiting for the proper time, to give. 
" The kingdom of heaven snffereth violence, and the 
violent take it by force." 



XIX. 

THE EIOH FOOL. 

Luke xii. 16-21. 

In the midst of one of our Lord's most interesting 
discourses, an interruption occurs. One of His hearers 
had so slight an interest in the spiritual truths which 
He was communicating, was so concerned about a 
wrong which he believed himself to have sustained, 
that he broke in upon the Lord's teaching with that 
request which gave occasion for this parable, " Master, 
speak to my brother, that he divide the inheritance 
with me." From his appeal to Jesus, made in the 
presence of the whole multitude, it is probable that 
his brother was really treating him unjustly. But it 
was the extreme inopportuneness of the season for 
urging his claim, that showed him as one in whom 
the worldly prevailed to the danger of exclusion of 
the spiritual, and that drew a warning from our Lord. 



152 THE RICH FOOL. 

He declined in this, as in every other case, to interfere 
in the affairs of civil life. His adversaries had sought 
to thrust upon Him the exercise of a jurisdiction which 
He carefully avoided. See John viii. 1-11, and Matt, 
xvii. 2i-27. But each time He avoided the snare, 
keeping Himself within the limits of the moral and 
spiritual world, as that from which alone effectual 
improvements in the outer life of man could proceed. 
He would work from the inward to the outward. 

Our Lord, having uttered a warning against eov- 
etousness, a sin always united with the trusting in un- 
certain riches, shows by a parable the folly of such 
trust. For, besides other reasons, security is neces- 
sary to blessedness ; but that earthly life, which is 
the necessary condition of drawing enjoyment out of 
worldly abundance, may come to an end at any mo- 
ment. "The ground of a certain rich man brought 
forth plentifully P " The prosperity of fools shall 
destroy them ; n a truth to which this man sets his 
seal, for his prosperity draws out his selfish propensi- 
ties into stronger action. It might, indeed, seem as 
if we should be in the greatest danger of setting our 
heart upon riches, when we saw them escaping from 
our grasp. But all experience testifies that earthly 
losses are the remedy for covetousness, while increase 
in worldly goods serves not as water to quench, but 
as fuel to increase, the fire (Eccl. v. 10). 



THE RICH FOOL. 153 

"He thought within himself, saying, What shall 
I do ? " Here we are admitted to the inner chamber 
of a worldling's heart, rejoicing over his abundance, 
and making " provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts 
thereof." "I have no room where to bestow my 
fruits" " Thou hast barns — the bosoms of the needy, 
the houses of the widows, the mouths of orphans and 
of infants " (Ambrose). This would have been his 
wisdom thus " to bestow " his wealth ; but he does 
not thus provide for himself " bags which wax not 
old, a treasure in the heavens which faileth not ; " but, 
"I will pull down my hams, and build greater, and 
there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods" 
"Observe," says Theophylact, " my goods and my 
fruits." His riches were fairly got, and this makes 
the example the better to suit the present occasion. 
The world would see nothing to condemn in his plans 
for future enjoyment : "I will say to my soul, Soid, 
thou hast much goods laid up for many years : take 
thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry" He determines 
now to rest from his labors. His plans of happiness 
rise no higher than to the satisfying of the flesh, and 
there is a melancholy irony in making him address 
this speech to his soul — to that soul which was capa- 
ble of knowing and loving and glorifying God. 

He expects thus to nourish his soul "for many 
years ; " he thinks as Job did once, to multiply his 
7* 



154 THE RICH FOOL. 

days as the sand. " But God said unto him, Thou 
fool, this night thy soul shall he required of thee" 
"Thou fool" opposed to his own opinion of his pru- 
dence, — " this night" to the many years which he had 
promised himself, — and that " soul " which he had pur- 
posed to make fat, shall be " required" of him. "We 
are not to suppose any direct manifestation in the 
idea of God's speaking to this man, but what is more 
awful, that while those secure plans were going on in 
his thoughts, this sentence was being determined in 
the counsels of God. 'Not as yet was there any direct 
communication between God and the man's soul, but 
even at the very moment when God was pronouncing 
the decree that the thread of his life should in a few 
minutes be cut in twain, he was confidently promising 
to himself a long period of uninterrupted security. 

There is a force in " shall he required of thee" 
Theophylact : " For from the righteous his soul is not 
required^ but he commits it to the Father of spirits, 
pleased and rejoicing." The mere worldling is torn 
from the world, which is his only sphere of delight, as 
the fabled mandrake was torn from the earth, shrieking 
and with bleeding roots* "Then whose shall those 
things he, which thou hast provided ? " Solomon, 
long before, had noted this uncertainty as constituting 
part of the vanity of wealth (Eccl. ii. 18, 19 ; comp. 
Ps. xxxix. 6). 



THE RICH FOOL. 155 

" So is he that layeth up treasure for himself and 
is not rich toward God" or, does not enrich himself 
towards God, — for the two clauses of the verse are 
parallel. Self and God are here contemplated as the 
two poles between which the sonl is placed, for one 
of which it nmst determine, and then make that one 
the end of all its efforts. The man laying up treasure 
for himself, while that is made the end and object of 
his being, is impoverishing himself inwardly ; for 
there is a continual draining off to worldly objects of 
those affections which were given him that they might 
be satisfied alone in God ; where his treasure is, there 
his heart is also. He that has no love of God, and 
no share in the unsearchable riches of Christ, is in 
fact " wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, 
and naked," however he may say, " I am rich and in- 
creased with goods, and have need of nothing." On 
the other hand, he who is rich toward God and in 
God, possesses all things, though a beggar in this 
world, and will, when he dies, not quit, but go to, his 
riches. 

Our Lord, having thus warned His hearers against 
covetousness, and knowing how often it springs from 
a distrust in God's providential care, teaches them 
(ver. 22-30) the love and care of a heavenly Father. 
In the 24th verse, we have, perhaps, a distinct remi- 
niscence of this parable. 



XX. 

THE BARREN FIG-TREE. 

Luke xiii. 6-9. 

The insurrectionary character for which the Gali- 
leans were noted, may have been the excuse for the 
outrage mentioned in ver. 1, which must have been 
perpetrated at Jerusalem, for there alone sacrifices were 
offered. Those who narrated it to our Lord prob- 
ably meant to suggest that if men could be safe any- 
where, it would be at God's altar, but that there must 
have been some great hidden guilt, which rendered the 
very sacrifices of these men to be sin, so that they them- 
selves became piacular expiations, their blood ming- 
ling with, and forming part of, those which they offered. 
But our Lord at once laid bare the evil in their hearts, 
rebuking their cruel judgments. " Suppose ye, that 
these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, 
because they suffered such things ? " He does not 
deny that they were sinners, but He does deny that 






THE BARKEN FIG-TREE. 157 

their calamity marked them out as sinners above all 
others of their fellow-countrymen ; and then He leads 
His hearers (comp. Luke xiii. 23 ; John xxi. 22) to 
take their eyes off from others, and fix them upon 
themselves. " Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise 
perish. 9 ' "We are here taught that in the calamities 
which befall others, we have loud calls to repentance, 
for we are to recognize that whatever befalls another, 
might justly have befallen ourselves. Moreover, 
when we have learned to see the root of sin in our- 
selves, we shall learn to acknowledge that whatever 
deadly fruit it bears in another, it might have borne 
the same or even worse, in like circumstances, in our- 
selves. One who feels thus will not deny, as neither 
does our Lord deny, the intimate connection between 
. sin and suffering, but it is the sin of the race which is 
linked with the suffering of the race ; not, of neces- 
sity at least, the sin of the individual with his par- 
ticular suffering. 

Our blessed Lord, to set the truth yet more plainly 
before His hearers, brings forward another instance of 
a swift destruction falling upon many at once : — 
" Those eighteen on whom the tower of Siloam fell 
and slew them, think ye that they were sinners above 
all men that dwelt in Jerusalem ? " In these acci- 
dents, in this disharmony of nature, all were to re- 
cognize a call to repentance, for all such events are 



158 THE BARKEN FIG-TKEE. 

parts of the curse consequent on the sin of man. 
There is a force in the original word, which our Eng- 
lish " likewise " fails to give. The threat is that they 
shall literally in like wise perish. Multitudes of the 
inhabitants of Jerusalem were crushed beneath the 
ruins of their temple and city ; and during the last 
siege and assault, there were numbers also, who were 
pierced through with Roman darts in the courts of 
the temple, in the very act of preparing their sacri- 
fices, so that literally their blood was mingled with 
their sacrifices. 

Olshausen observes : — "The discourse of Jesus, se- 
vere and full of rebuke, is closed by a parable, in 
which the merciful Son of man appears as the In- 
tercessor for men before the righteousness of the 
Heavenly Father ; as He who obtains for them space 
for repentance. This idea of deferring the judgment 
of men, runs all through the Holy Scriptures (Gen. 
vi. 3 ; Gen. xviii. 24) ; the destruction of Jerusalem 
was not until forty years after the ascension of our 
Lord (see also 2 Pet. iii. 9)." This parable, then, 
is at once concerning the long-suffering and severity 
of God. 

" A certain man had a fig-tree planted in his vine- 
yardP Though by the fig-tree the Jews are directly 
meant, yet as Israel according to the flesh was the 
representative of all and of each who in after times 



THE BARREN FIG-TREE. 159 

should be admitted to the principles of a nearer 
knowledge of God, so is a warning herein contained 
for the Gentile Church, and for every individual soul. 
The possessor of the fig-tree "came, and sought fruit 
thereon, and found none " (Isa. v. 2, 7 ; Jer. ii. 21). The 
simple image of men compared to trees, and their work 
to fruit, runs through the whole of Scripture (Ps. 
i. 3 ; John xv. 2, 4, 5 ; Rom. vii. 4). There are three 
kinds of works spoken of in the New Testament, 
which may all be illustrated from this image : first, 
good works, when the tree, being made good, bears 
good fruit ; then dead works — fruit, as it were fas- 
tened on from without, alms given that they may be 
gloried in, prayers made that they may be seen, &c. ; 
and lastly, wicked works, when the corrupt tree bears 
fruit manifestly of its own kind. 

Of the " three years " in which the master of the 
vineyard complains that he finds no fruit, many ex- 
planations have been given. Theophylact : — " Christ 
came three times — by Moses, by the Prophets, and in 
His own person." Augustine understands by them 
the times of the natural law — the written law — and 
now, of grace. Olshausen thinks they may refer to 
the three years of our Lord's ministry upon earth ; 
but Grotius had already observed, that if so, the one 
year more must also be chronological, whereas forty 
years were allowed before the final destruction of the 



160 THE BARREN FIG-TREE. 

Jews. " Cut it down " (Isa. v. 5, 6 ; Matt. vii. 19) ; 
why cumbereth it the ground f " ("We miss here the 
also of the original, after the word " why." It is 
really the key-word of the sentence.) St. Basil 
beautifully says : " This is peculiar to the clemency 
of God toward men, that He does not bring in punish- 
ments silently or secretly ; but by His threatenings first 
proclaims them to be at hand, thus inviting sinners 
to repentance." Before the hewing down begins, the 
axe is laid at the root of the tree (Matt. iii. 10). The 
cumbering of the ground implies more than that it 
occupied a place which might be more profitably 
filled ; the barren tree injured the land around. 
Thus, the Jewish Church not merely did not bring 
forth fruits of righteousness, but through them the 
name of God was blasphemed among the Gentiles 
(Rom. ii. 24 ; Matt, xxiii. 13, 15). So is this true of 
the individual sinner ; that he is not only unprofitable 
to God, but, by his evil example, he is a stumbling- 
block to others. 

The dresser of the vineyard, w T ho pleads, "Zord, 
let it alone this year also" is manifestly the Son of 
God Himself (Job xxxiii. 23 ; Zech. i. 12 ; Heb. vii. 
25) ; yet not as though the Father and Son had differ- 
ent minds concerning sinners, as though the counsels 
of the Father were wrath, and of the Son mercy. 
But at the same time we must not fall into the oppo- 



THE BARKEN FIG-TKEE. 161 

site error, letting go the reality of God's wrath against 
sin, and the reality of the sacrifice of Christ on that 
side which looks towards God ; the death of Christ 
was really a propitiation of God, not merely an assur- 
ance of God's love towards sinners. We see the way 
of escape from both of these errors in those words : 
" The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world " 
(Kev. xiii. 8) ; "foreordained before the foundation of 
the world " (1 Pet. i. 20) ; we must not conceive of man 
as ever not contemplated by God in Christ (Rom. xvi. 
25, 26). In this view we may consider the high-priestly 
intercession of Christ as having found place and been 
effectual even before He passed into the heavens — 
before He had carried His own blood into the truly 
Holy of Holies. 

The vine-dresser pleads not that the barren tree 
may stand forever, though it continue barren ; for he 
consents to its doom, if it remain unfruitful ; but he 
asks for it one year of grace ; " If it hear fruit, well / 
and if not, then after that thoic shalt cut it downP 
During this year, " he will dig about it, and dung 
it ; " that is, he will hollow out the earth from around 
the stem, and fill up the hollow with manure ; as one 
may often see done now to orange-trees in the south 
of Italy. By this is signified the multiplication of 
the means of grace, which God gives before they are 
withdrawn forever. Thus before the flood, Noah 



162 THE BAEEEN FIG-TEEE. 

appeared a " preacher of righteousness," — before the 
great catastrophes of the Jews, some of their most 
eminent prophets appeared, — and before the final de- 
struction of Jerusalem, they enjoyed the ministry of 
Christ and His Apostles. To this last, allusion is here 
no doubt immediately made, to that larger, richer 
supply of grace, consequent on the death, resurrection, 
and ascension of our Lord. Doubtless this is true of 
men's lives as well. 

Such a time of visitation to the Jewish nation was 
our Lord's ministry (Luke xix. 42). There was 
the digging about the tree which had so long been 
barren. But it abode in its barrenness, and, as was 
threatened, was cut down. Yet our Lord's words, 
" If it tear fruit, well" show that there was another 
alternative. The door of repentance is left open to 
all ; they are warned that it is only themselves who 
make their doom inevitable. 



XXI. 

THE GEEAT SUPPER. 

Luke xiv. 15-24. 

It has already been proved that this parable and 
the one recorded at Matt. xxii. 2 are entirely different. 
On the present occasion our Lord had been invited to 
eat bread at the house of one of the chief Pharisees (ver. 
1). This was probably an expensive entertainment ; 
from the various circumstances related in verses 7 
and 12, we may conclude that many were present, 
and, it is likely, guests of consideration. This sup- 
position adds much force to the admonishment (ver. 
12). Our Lord's words in ver. 14, " Thou shalt be 
recompensed at the resurrection of the just," called 
forth from one present the admiring exclamation, 
" Blessed is he that shall eat bread in the kingdom 
of God ! " The Jews believed that the resurrection 
of the just, the open setting up of the kingdom of 
God, would be ushered in by a great festival, of 



164 THE GBEAT SUPPER. 

which all the members of that kingdom should be 
partakers. This, therefore, was an earthly way of say- 
ing, " Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first 
resurrection." He spoke these words, it is likely, 
with an easy assurance that he should be one of the 
privileged number. He, as a Jew, a member of the 
elect nation, had been invited to that great feast of 
God ; he did not pause to consider whether he had 
truly accepted the call, and certainly he had not con- 
sidered whether in the refusal to enter into the higher 
spiritual life, to which Christ was inviting him, there 
was not involved his own final rejection from the 
heavenly festival. To him, and to others like him, 
the parable was spoken. 

" A certain man made a great supper." Men's 
relish for heavenly things is so little that they are 
presented to them under such inviting images as 
this, that, if possible, they may be stirred up to a 
more earnest longing after them. " And lade many • " 
these were, as the latter part of the parable indicates, 
the priests, elders, scribes, and Pharisees. These, as 
claiming to be following after righteousness, seemed 
to be pointed out as the first who should embrace 
the invitation of Christ. The maker of the feast 
" sent his servant at supper-time, to say to them that 
were hidden. Come, for all things are now ready" 
This was the usual custom, and their contempt of the 



THE GREAT SUPPER. 165 

honor done them, and neglect of their given word, — 
for we must suppose that they had already accepted 
the invitation, — are testified by the excuses which they 
make for not appearing at the festival. There was, 
without doubt, a time when more than any other it 
might be said, " all things are now ready" a fulness 
of time, when the kingdom of heaven was set up, and 
men were invited to enter into it, first the Jew, and 
afterwards the Gentile. By the servant sent to bid 
the guests is not meant our Saviour ; neither does he 
represent the prophets, for it is not till " all things 
are now ready" that he is sent forth. He rather 
represents those who accompanied the Saviour, preach- 
ers, evangelists, apostles, and all who, reminding the 
Jews of the ancient prophecies concerning the king- 
dom of God, and their share therein, bade them now 
enter on the enjoyment of these good things. 

" And they all with one consent " (or, out of one 
mind or spirit) " began to ?nake excuse" Perhaps 
he who said "I have bought a piece of ground, and 
I must needs go and see it" represents those who are 
elate of heart through acquired possessions. It adds 
much to the earnestness of the warning of the parable 
that none of the guests are kept away by occupations 
in themselves sinful, and yet all become sinful, be- 
cause the first place is given to them. While with 
him it is " the lust of the eye and the pride of life " 



166 THE GREAT SUPPER. 

(Dan. iv. 30), which keep him from Christ, in the 
second it is rather the care and anxiety of business 
which fill thesonl; " I have bought five yoke of oxen, 
and I go to prove them" This trial of the oxen was 
probably to take place before the purchase was finally 
concluded. He is getting what the other has already 
got. In the last we see that it is the pleasure of the 
world that keeps him from Christ : " See you not 
that I have a feast of my own ? why trouble me with 
yours % I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot 
come." This one accounts that he has a reason per- 
fectly good, and therefore does not trouble himself 
with the words, " I pray thee, have me excused" but 
bluntly refuses. As in Matt. xxii. so here, there is 
an ascending scale. The first would be very glad to 
come, if it were possible ; the second alleges no such 
necessity of absence, but is simply going upon suffi- 
cient reason in another direction ; yet he too prays to 
be excused. The third has plans of his own, and 
says outright, " I cannot come" In what remarkable 
connection do these excuses stand with the words of 
our Lord, which follow so soon after (verse 26), and 
how apt a commentary does St. Paul supply (ICor. vii. 
29-31). They had nothing which it was not lawful to 
have, but the undue love of earthly possessions ulti- 
mately excluded them from the feast. — The servant 
returns and declares to his lord, how all have excused 



THE GREAT SUPPEK. 167 

themselves from coming ; even so it was said, " Have 
any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on 
him ? " (John vii. 48). " Then the master of the 
house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly 
into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in 
hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and 
the blind." We have here a distinct reminiscence 
of ver. 13. Thus is it with the great Giver of the 
heavenly feast. He calls the spiritually sick and needy, 
while those who are rich in their own merits exclude 
themselves and are excluded by Him. The publicans 
and sinners, the despised and outcast of the nation, 
should enter into the kingdom of God before those 
who thanked God they were not as other men. 

Hitherto the parable has been historic, now it 
passes on to the prophetic, for it declares how God 
had prepared a feast, at which more shall sit down 
than a remnant of the Jewish people — that He has 
founded a Church in which there would be room for 
Gentile as well as Jew. Not that this is explicitly 
declared, but it lay wrapt up in the parable. The 
servant, returning from his second mission, had said, 
" Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet 
there is room" whereupon, since grace will endure a 
vacuum as little as nature, he receives a new com- 
mission, " Go out into the highways and hedges, and 
compel them to come in, that my house may be filled" 



168 THE GREAT SUPPER. 

If those in the lanes of the city are the most miserable 
and sinful of the Jews, then those without the city — in 
the country around — will be the yet more abject Gen- 
tiles, the pagans in all senses of the word. Concerning 
these, the word is, " Compel them to come in" Of 
course this means a moral compulsion. It is not implied 
that there would be any indifference toward the invita- 
tion, but that these houseless wanderers would think 
themselves so unworthy of it as not to believe it, and 
could scarcely be induced without much persuasion to 
enter the rich man's dwelling, and share in his enter- 
tainment. 

And since faith cannot be compelled, this word 
must be applied to that strong, earnest exhortation 
which the ambassadors of Christ will address to men 
when they are themselves deeply convinced of the 
importance of their message and of the great results 
depending. If they " compel" it will be as the 
angels compelled Lot (Gen. xix. 16) ; or they will, in 
another way, compel men to come in, for they will 
speak the words of Him who not merely entreats, but 
commands, all men everywhere to repent and believe 
the Gospel. As Luther explains it, men are com- 
pelled to come in when the law is preached, terrify- 
ing their consciences, and driving them to Christ as 
their only refuge. The parable closes with the indig- 
nant exclamation of the householder, " For I say 



THE GREAT SUPPER. 169 

unto you that none of those men that were bidden, 
shall taste of my supper ; " this is the penalty with 
which he threatens them — no after earnestness in 
claiming admission shall profit them (Prov. i. 28 ; 
Matt. xxv. 11, 12). This exclusion is nothing less 
than exclusion from the kingdom of God, and from 
all the blessings of the communion of Christ, and that 
implies " everlasting destruction from the presence of 
the Lord, and the glory of His power." 

This whole parable suggests a parallel with 1 Cor. 
i. 26-29. 



8 



xxn. 

THE LOST SHEEP. 

Matt, xviii. 12-14 ; Luke xv. 3-7. 

When St. Luke says, " Then draw near to the 
Lord all the publicans and sinners for to hear him," 
we must understand him as giving the prevailing 
feature in the whole of Christ's ministry, or at least 
in one epoch of it. The publicans were hateful to 
their countrymen, being accounted as traitors who 
for the sake of filthy lucre had sided with the Ro- 
mans, the oppressors of the theocracy, and now col- 
lected tribute for a heathen treasury, No alms might 
be received from their money-chest ; their evidence 
was not taken in courts of justice, and they were put 
on the same level with heathens (this fact gives an 
emphasis to Luke xix. 9). By the word " sinners " is 
meant all those who, till awakened by the Lord to re- 
pentance, had been notorious transgressors. Being 
come to seek and to save that which was lost, He re- 






THE LOST SHEEP. 171 

ceived them graciously, and lived in familiar inter- 
course with them. At this the Scribes and Pharisees 
took offence. They could have understood a John 
the Baptist flying to the wilderness to escape con- 
tamination, but Christ was the physician who rather 
came boldly to seek out the infected, in order to heal 
them. The Pharisees had neither love to hope for 
the recovery of such, nor medicines to effect it. 

Their murmurings were the occasion of the three 
parables which follow. Christ holds up to them God 
and the angels of God rejoicing at the conversion of 
a sinner, and silently contrasts this with their envious 
repinings. More than this, He warns them that if 
they indulge in this proud self-righteousness, there 
will be more joy in heaven over one of these penitents 
whom they despised, than over ninety-nine of such 
as themselves. He does not deny the good that 
might be in them ; but if now they refused the higher 
righteousness of faith, the new life of the Gospel, then 
such as would receive this life from Him, though hav- 
ing in times past departed infinitely wider from God 
than they had done, would now be brought infinitely 
nearer to Him. 

The first two parables set forth mainly the seeking 
love of God ; while the third describes to us rather 
the rise and growth of repentance responsive to that 
love. The three would have seemed incomplete if 



172 THE LOST SHEEP. 

separated, for the two first speak nothing of a changed 
heart toward God, nor indeed would the images used 
have allowed of this ; while the last speaks only of 
this change, and nothing of that which must have 
caused it, namely, the antecedent working of the 
Spirit of God in the heart. But there are also many 
other inner harmonies between them, interesting to 
trace. The possessor of a hundred sheep, in some 
sort a rich man, was not likely to feel the loss of a 
single one so deeply as the woman who, out of ten 
small pieces of money, should lose one ; and her feel- 
ings would come infinitely short of the parental 
affection of a father who, having but two sons, should 
behold one of them going astray. Thus we find our- 
selves moving in ever narrower, and so ever intenser 
circles of hope, and fear, and love — drawing thus 
nearer to the innermost centre and heart of the truth. 
"We see also, in each case, shadowed forth a greater 
guilt, and therefore a greater grace. In the first 
parable, the sinner is set forth as a silly wandering 
sheep. Though this is but one side of the truth, yet 
it is a most real one, that sin is oftentimes an igno- 
rance ; the sinner knows not what he does. Multi- 
tudes of wanderers go astray, before they have even 
learned that they have a shepherd. But there are 
others, set forth under the lost money, who, having 
known themselves to be God's, and to be stamped 



THE LOST SHEEP. 173 

with the image of the Great King, do yet throw 
themselves away, and renounce their high birth. 
But there is a sin yet greater — the sin of the prodigal 
— to have known something of the love of God, not 
as our King, but as our Father, and yet to have 
slighted that love, and forsaken His house — this is the 
crowning guilt ; and yet the grace of God is sufficient 
to reclaim even such a wanderer. 

The first parable had a peculiar fitness to the 
spiritual rulers of the Jewish people. They were 
warned, rebuked, and charged continually under this 
very title of shepherds (Ezek. xxxiv ; Zech. xi. 16) ; 
yet now they were finding fault with Christ for doing 
that very thing which they ought to have done. 
There is in sin a centrifugal tendency, and of neces- 
sity the wanderings of the sheep would be farther 
and farther away. Therefore, without the shepherd's 
going forth to seek it, it must be lost forever. "We 
are not to understand by the " wilderness " in which 
the ninety-nine sheep were left, any thing more than 
wide-extended grassy plains, called desert because 
without habitations of men. Thus we read in John 
(vi. 10) that there was much grass in a place which 
another Evangelist calls a desert. So that the residue 
of the flock are left in their ordinary pasturage, while 
the shepherd seeks the lost sheep. 

Christ's Incarnation was a girding of Himself to go 



174: THE LOST SHEEP. 

after His lost sheep. In His own words, He " came to 
seek and to save that which was lost." And He 
sought His own till He found it. He followed us into 
the deep of onr misery. And having fonnd his 
sheep, the shepherd does not punish it, nor even 
harshly drive it back into the fold, but he lays it 
upon his own shoulders and carefully carries it home. 
In this last we see an image of the supporting grace 
of Christ, which ceases not till His rescued are made 
partakers of final salvation. And as the man reach- 
ing home summons friends and neighbors to share his 
joy, so Christ declares there shall be joy in heaven on 
the occasion of one sinner repenting. Though not 
distinctly declared, He lets it sufficiently appear, that 
it is even Himself who, returning to the heavenly 
places, shall cause jubilee there. For we must notice, 
that this joy of which He speaks is future ; He has 
not yet risen and ascended, leading captivity captive, 
and bringing with Him His redeemed. Nor let us 
miss the intimation of the dignity of His person given 
in " I say unto you " — I who know, I who tell you of 
things which I have seen (John iii. 11), I say to you 
that this joy shall be in heaven. 

"Were this all the declaration, there would be 
nothing to perplex us ; but there is more joy over the 
penitents " than over ninety and nine just persons 
which need no repentance" We can easily under- 



THE LOST SHEEP. 175 

stand how, among men, there should be more joy for 
a small portion which has been endangered, than for 
the continued secure possession of a much larger por- 
tion. More joy is felt upon the recovery of a sick 
friend, even though as yet it be not entire, than when 
he walked sound and strong. Yet this dispropor- 
tionate joy arises clearly from the unexpectedness of 
the result, from the temporary uncertainty of it. 
But God who knows the end from the beginning 
needs not to have a joy heightened by a fear going 
before. 

Still further, the words, " which need no repent- 
ance" are difficult, since we read, " All we like sheep 
have gone astray." We may indeed get rid of both 
difficulties by seeing here an instance of our Lord's 
severe yet loving irony, and finding in the ninety and 
nine the self-righteous. But the whole construction of 
the parable is against such a supposition ; the ninety 
and nine sheep have not wandered. The one view which 
affords a solution is this — that we understand these 
" righteous " as really such, but that their righteousness 
is merely legal. The law had done a part of its work 
for them, keeping them from gross positive transgres- 
sions of its enactments, but it had not brought them, as 
God intended it should, to a conviction of sin ; it had 
not prepared them to embrace the salvation offered by 
Christ. lie now declares that there was more real 



176 THE LOST SHEEP. 

joy over one of these publicans and sinners, who were 
entering into the inner sanctuary of faith, than over 
ninety and nine of themselves, who lingered at the 
legal vestibule, refusing to enter. Gregory the Great 
observes : " A general in battle prefers that soldier 
who, turning back from flight, charges the enemy 
bravely, to him who never fled, and never showed 
any valor." 



XXIII. 
THE LOST PIECE OF MONEY. 

Luke xv. 8-10. 

It would be against all analogy of preceding 
parables to presume that this, and the one that has 
gone just before, although so much alike, say merely 
the same thing. If the shepherd in the last parable 
. was Christ, the woman in this may, perhaps, be the 
Church, or the Divine Wisdom which so often in 
Proverbs is described as seeking the salvation of men, 
and is here as elsewhere set forth as a person (Luke 
xi. 49). Rather these two explanations flow into one, 
when we keep in mind how the Church is the organ 
in and through which the Holy Spirit seeks for the 
lost. Keeping the fact prominently in view that it 
is only as the Church is dwelt in by the Holy Spirit, 
that it can appear as the woman seeking her lost, 
and that it is only as the Spirit says " Come," that 
the Bride can say it, we shall have in the three para- 



178 THE LOST PIECE OF MONEY. 

bles the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, although 
not in their order. 

In the lost piece of money, expositors have traced 
a resemblance to the human soul (" God created man 
in His own image," Gen. i. 27), which still retains 
traces of the mint from which it proceeded, though the 
image has been nearly effaced by sin ; farther, as the 
piece of money is lost for all useful purposes to its 
owner, so man through sin has become unprofitable to 
God. But as the woman, having lost her piece of 
money, will " light a candle, and sweep the house, 
and seek diligently till she find it" even so the Lord, 
through the ministrations of the Church, gives dili- 
gence to recover 1^he lost sinner. The lighting of the 
candle may be explained by such passages as Matt. v. 
14 ; Phil. ii. 15. The candle is the word of God, which 
the Church holds forth ; and it is by this light that 
sinners are found — that they find themselves, and the 
Church finds them. Having this candle, she pro- 
ceeds to sweep the house, deranging every thing for a 
time. The charge evermore is that the world is 
turned upside down. But amidst all the outcry, she 
that bears the candle of the Lord ceases not from her 
labor, until she has recovered her own again. 

We must not omit to remark a difference between 
this parable and the preceding, which is more than 



THE LOST PIECE OF MONEY. 179 

accidental. In that the shepherd sought his lost 
sheep in the wilderness ; but it is in the house that 
this piece of money is lost and looked for. There is, 
then, a progress from that to this.- The visible Church 
now first appears. There are other variations also, 
to be explained on the same supposition that we have 
there the more immediate ministry of Christ, and here 
the secondary ministry of His Church. The shepherd 
says, " I have found my sheep ; " the woman, " I 
have found the coin ; " for it was not hers in the sense 
in which the sheep was his. He says, " which was 
lost ; " she says, " which I lost," confessing a fault of 
her own, the original cause of the loss ; for a sheep 
strays of itself, but a piece of money could only be 
lost by a certain negligence on the part of the pos- 
sessor. 

The woman having found her own, " calleth her 
friends and her neighbors together" that they may 
share her joy. We have in the next verse our Lord's 
warrant for applying this to the angels, whose place 
is not " in heaven," as in the last parable : for this is 
the rejoicing together of the redeemed creation upon 
earth at the repentance of a sinner. The angels that 
walk up and down the earth, that are present in the 
congregations of the faithful — there shall be joy before 
them when the Church of the redeemed, quickened 



180 THE LOST PIECE OF MONEY. 

by the Holy Spirit, summons them to join with it in 
thanksgiving for the recovery of a lost soul ; for, as 
St. Bernard says, the tears of penitence are the wine 
of angels. 



XXIV. 

THE PKODIGAL SON. 

Luke xv. 11-32 

This might be called the pearl and crown of all the 
parables of Scripture ; one containing within itself 
such a circle of doctrine as abundantly to justify the 
title sometimes given it of Evangelium in Evangelio^ 
The Gospel within the Gospel. In respect to its 
primary application, there have always been two differ- 
ent views ; some considering the sons as the Jew and 
the Gentile, the younger representing by his conduct 
the apostasy and return of the Gentile world, the 
elder, the narrow-hearted, self-extolling Jews, grudg- 
ing that the " sinners of the Gentiles " should be ad- 
mitted to the same blessing with themselves ; others 
looking upon the younger son as representing all who 
have widely departed from God, and who having in 
consequence experienced misery, have by His grace 
been brought back to Him, while in the elder brother 



182 THE PEODIGAL SON. 

they see either a narrow form of real righteousness, 
or one righteous in his own sight, not in the Lord's. 
The latter view is the more correct one, though not 
rigorously excluding the former. The parables in this 
chapter are spoken by Jesus to justify His conduct in 
receiving " publicans and sinners," who were Jews, 
and not to unfold that far deeper mystery, the calling 
of the Gentiles, of which he gave only a few hints to 
His chosen disciples, and which was for a long time a 
stumbling-block even to them. 

" The younger " of these two sons " said to his 
father ', Give me the portion of goods that falleth to 
meP We need not conceive of his asking this as a 
right, though it may have been so, but only as a 
favor. The portion, according to the Jewish law, 
would be the half of what the elder brother would re- 
ceive (Deut. xxi. 17). In a spiritual sense, this request 
is an expression of man's desire to be independent of 
God (Gen. iii. 5), of his desire to take the ordering of 
his life into his own hands, believing that he can be 
a fountain of blessedness to himself. All subsequent 
sins are included in this one. We express the feeling 
directly opposed to this in the words, " Give us this 
day our daily bread," in which we acknowledge that 
we desire to wait continually upon God for the supply 
of our bodily and spiritual needs. 

The father " divided unto them his living" It 






THE PBODIGAL SON. 183 

would have little profited to retain him at home, who 
had already in heart become strange to that home. 
Such is the dealing of God ; He has constituted man a 
being with a will ; and when His service no longer 
appears a perfect freedom, and man promises himself 
liberty elsewhere, he is allowed to make the trial, and 
to discover that in departing from Him he falls under 
the horrible bondage of his own lusts and of the 
world, and under the tyranny of the devil. And 
now, the younger son is 

" Lord of himself— that heritage of woe." 

Yet although he had gained his portion, he did not 
immediately leave his home. St. Bernard sees a force 
in this, and observes how the apostasy of the heart 
will often precede the apostasy of the life. The diver- 
gence of the sinner's will and the will of God does not 
immediately appear. Soon, however, it must, for 
" not many days after, the younger son gathered all 
together, and took his journey into a far country" 
By this gathering together of all, and departing, 
seems intimated the collecting on man's part of all 
his energies, with the deliberate determination of 
getting all that he can out of the world. The "far 
country " is a world where God is not, or, as Augus- 
tine has it, " The ' far country ' is forgetfulness of 
God." There he " wasted" or scattered "his sul- 



184 THE PEODIGAL SON. 

stance with riotous living" so quickly has the gather- 
ing issued in a scattering. 

The supplies lasted for a while, and he may have 
congratulated himself upon his liberty. Even so the 
sinner does not discover at once his misery and pov- 
erty ; for the world has its attractions, and the flesh 
its pleasures. But the time arrives when he comes 
to the end of all that the creature can give him ; 
" when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine 
in that land and he legan to he in want" He begins 
to discover his misery, and that it is an evil thing 
and a bitter to have forsaken the Lord his God (Jer. 
ii. 19 ; xvii. 5, 6). In the spiritual world, there need he, 
though often there will be, no outward calamities to 
bring on this sense of famine. It sits unbidden at 
rich men's tables, and enters into kings' palaces. 
There, the immortal soul may be ready to "perish 
with hunger" 

If we see here the great apostasy of the heathen 
world, as well as the departure of a single soul, this 
wasting of goods will be exactly that in Eom. i. 19- 
23, as the remainder of the chapter will exactly an- 
swer to the residue of the prodigal's sad experience. 
The great famine of the heathen world was at its 
height when the Son of God came in the flesh. All 
childlike faith in the old religions had departed. The 
Greek philosophy had failed. 






THE PKODIGAL SON. 185 

That the prodigal " hegan to he in want" was, no 
doubt, a summons to him to return home, but as yet 
his confidence in his own resources was not altogether 
exhausted. " He went and joined himself to a citi- 
zen of that country" hoping to repair his broken for- 
tunes by his help. And here we see a fall within a 
fall — a more entire yielding of himself by the sinner 
to the service of the world. Still, this prodigal with 
all his misery was not yet a " citizen " in that far 
country. There is hope for the sinner so long as 
he feels himself a miserable alien in the land of sin. 
By his joining himself to the citizen, our Lord gives 
us a hint of that dark mystery in the downward pro- 
gress of souls, by which he who begins by using the 
world as his servant to minister to his pleasures, ends 
by becoming its slave. 

But sinful man finds no love, no pity from his 
fellow-sinner. This new master dismisses him from 
his sight, and sends him to the vilest employment, 
" to feed swine" "We know that it was even accursed 
in the eyes of a Jew ; so that the prodigal's cup of 
misery was full. And now, " he would fain have filed 
his helly with the husks that the swine did eat ; and no 
man gave unto him" (These " husks " are not the pods 
of some other fruit, but themselves the fruit of the 
carob tree. They are very common in the Levant. 
The shell or pod alone is eaten.) This is generally 



186 THE PKODIGAL SON. 

taken as meaning that he could not obtain even these 
husks ; but seeing they must have been in his power, 
we may suppose that lie did eat them, no man giving 
him any thing more satisfactory. The expression 
"filled his belly" is chosen of design — all he could 
do was to dull his gnawing pain, for the food of beasts 
could not appease the cravings of man. So, also, 
none but God can satisfy the longings of an immortal 
soul. 

The whole description is wonderful ; we see the 
evident relation in which his punishment stands to 
his sin. " He who would not be ruled by God, is 
compelled to serve the devil — he who would not feed 
on the bread of angels, petitions for the husks of 
swine."' In his feeding of swine, what a picture we 
have of man serving divers lusts and pleasures, the 
bestial merely predominant ; and in his fruitless at- 
tempt to fill his belly with the husks, what a picture 
again of man seeking to satisfy the fierce hunger of 
the soul by the unlimited gratification of his appetites. 
All the monstrous luxuries and frantic wickednesses 
which we read of in the later Roman history, stand 
like the last despairing effort of man to fill his belly 
with husks. The experiment carried out on this 
largest scale only proved that the food of beasts could 
not be made the nourishment of men. 

It is true that this picture, if applied to more than 



THE PKODIGAL SON. 187 

a few, is an exaggeration of the misery and wicked- 
ness of those who have turned their backs npon God ; 
but yet it is also true, that all this misery and sin are 
rendered possible by, and are the legitimate results 
of, a first departure from God ; and nothing hinders 
them from following, but the restraining grace of 
God. In the present case, sin is suffered to bear all 
its bitter fruit ; we see one who has debased himself 
even unto hell. "Were it not for this, it would not be 
a parable for all sinners, since it would fail to show 
that there is no extent of departure from God, which 
renders a return to Him impossible. 

As we have followed the sinner, step by step, in 
his downward career, so will we now trace his return, 
for though he has forsaken his God, he has not been 
forsaken by Him. He makes his sin bitter to him, 
that he may leave it. In this way God pursues His 
fugitives, calling them back in that only language 
which they will now understand. Here we have one, 
upon whom this " stern discipline of divine mercy " 
(Augustine) is not wasted. Presently, " he came to 
himself" How deeply significant are these words, 
" he came to himself" — so that to come to one's self, 
and to come to God, are the same thing. It is not, 
then, the man living in union with God, who is raised 
above the true condition of humanity, but the man 
not so living, who has fallen below that condition. 



1S8 THE PRODIGAL SON. 

God, being the true ground of our being, when and 
because we have found Him, we find ourselves also. 

When he thus " came to himself ] lie said, How 
many hired servants of my father's have bread enough 
and to spare, and I perish with hunger" This, too, 
is a touch of the deepest nature ; for the sinner be- 
holds everywhere but in himself peace and harmony, 
he sees nature calm and at rest, fulfilling in law and 
order the purposes for which it was ordained. He 
sees also many of his fellow-men, who find their satis- 
faction in the discharge of their daily duties ; who, 
though doing their work more in the spirit of servants 
than of sons, are yet not without their reward ; al- 
though they may not have the highest joy of God's 
salvation, they have bread enough and to spare, while 
he is perishing with hunger. Even at this point, how 
many come to a different determination from this 
prodigal. They betake them to some other citizen, 
who deludes them with false promises ; or they dress 
their husks so that they look like human food ; or 
they wallow in the same sty with the beasts they 
feed. But it is otherwise with him. " I will arise" 
We may picture him as having sat long on the 
ground, revolving the extreme misery of his condition 
(Job ii. 8, 13). But now he gathers up anew his 
prostrate energies ; " Why sit I here among the 
swine ? / will arise and go to my father" These 



THE PKODIGAL SON. 189 

words were cited by the Pelagians of old, in proof 
that man could turn to God in his own strength : 
just as the (self-styled) Unitarians of modern times 
find in the circumstances of the prodigal's return a 
proof that the sinner's repentance alone is sufficient 
to reconcile him with his God — that he needs no 
Mediator. But these conclusions are guarded against 
by the clearest declarations, the first by such as John 
vi. 44 ; the second by such passages as Heb. x. 19- 
22 ; nor are we to expect that every passage in Scrip- 
ture is to contain the whole circle of Christian doc- 
trine. 

Returning to that father, he " will say unto him. 
Father" What is it that gives the sinner confidence, 
that returning to God he shall not be repelled ? The 
adoption of sonship, which he received in Christ Jesus 
at his baptism, and his faith that the gifts and calling 
of God are without repentance or recall. He may 
claim anew his admission to the household, on the 
ground that he was once made a member thereof. 
" I have sinned against heaven and he/ore thee; " he 
shows his repentance to have been the work of the 
Spirit, in that he acknowledges his sin in its root, as a 
transgression of the divine law, as being wrought against 
God. Thus David exclaimed, " Against thee, thee 
only have I sinned," while yet his offences had been 
against the second table. For we may injure our- 



190 THE PRODIGAL SON. 

selves by our evil, we may wrong our neighbors, but we 
can sin only against God ; and the recognition of our 
evil as first and chiefly against Him, is of the essence 
of all true repentance. "When we come to give these 
words their higher application, the two acknowledg- 
ments merge into one, " I have sinned against Thee, 
my Father in heaven." Throughout all Scripture 
this willingness to confess is ever noted as a sign of 
true repentance begun, even as the sinner's refusal to 
humble himself by this confession is the sure sign of 
continued hardness (2 Sam. xii. 13 ; Job ix. 20 ; Prov. 
xxviii. 13 ; Jer. ii. 35 ; 1 John i. 9, 10).Tertullian :~- 
" In as far as thou hast not spared thyself, so far, be- 
lieve me, will God spare thee." With this deep feel- 
ing of unworthiness, he will confess, " I am no more 
worthy to be called thy son" A confession such as 
this belongs to the essence of all true repentance. 
But are the words which follow, " Make me as one of 
thy hired servants" those of returning spiritual health? 
We shall find that at a later period (ver. 21) he drops 
them, and shall refer to them then. 

There is no tarrying now : " lie arose and came to 
his father / but when he was yet a great way off, his 
father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and 
fell on his neck (Gen. xlv. 14) and kissed him ." The 
evidences of the father's love are described with 
touching minuteness ; he does not wait until his son 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 191 

has come all the way, but hastens forward to meet 
him, and at once welcomes him with the kiss, in the 
East the pledge of reconciliation and peace (Gen. 
xxxiii. 4 ; 2 Sam xiv. 33). Compare James iv. 8. 
The Lord sees His returning wanderers, while they 
are " yet a great way off ; " He listens to the first faint 
sighing of their hearts after Him, for it was He that 
first awoke those sighings there (Ps. x. 17). And 
though they may be " a great way off" though they 
may have far too slight a view of the evil of sin, or 
of the holiness of God, yet He meets them, notwith- 
standing, with the evidences of His reconciled love. 
Nor does He cause them to serve a dreary apprentice- 
ship of servile fear, but at once embraces them in the 
arms of His love, giving them perhaps stronger con- 
solations than they will have, oftentimes, after they 
become settled in the Christian course. And this 
He does because they need at this moment to be 
assured ; notwithstanding their moral loathsomeness 
and misery they are accepted in Christ Jesus, a truth 
which it is so hard for the sinner to believe. 

But although the son hears not his sin mentioned, 
he yet makes his confession ; and this was fitting, for 
though God may forgive, man may not therefore 
forget. We must take notice that it is after, and 
not before, the kiss of reconciliation that the confes- 
sion takes place ; for, the more the sinner knows and 



192 THE PPwODIGAL SOX. 

tastes of the love of God, the more he grieves ever to 
have sinned against that love. And thus will repent- 
ance be a life-long thing, for every new insight into 
that forgiving love is a new reason for mourning that 
we have ever sinned against it. The true relation 
between repentance and a sense of forgiveness is 
opened to us in such passages as Ezekiel xxxvi. 31, 
where the Lord says, i; Then " (and for the meaning 
of * ; then" see ver. 24-30) " shall ye remember 
your own evil ways," &c, &c. Compare Ezek. xvi. 
60-63. The son does not indeed say, " Make me as 
one of thy hired servants" for this shrinking back 
from the free grace which would restore to him all, 
had been the one troubled element of his repentance ; 
and in his dropping of these words, in his willingness 
to be blest by his father to the uttermost, there is 
evidence that the grace which he has already re- 
ceived, has not been in vain. 

And now the father showed that he meant to give 
him a place and a name in his house once more ; for 
he "said to his servants. Bring forth the lest role 
and p%U it on him, and put a ring on his hand and 
shoes on Ms feet" these being among the highest 
tokens of favor and honor (Gen. xli. 42). Probably by 
the giving of the robe is especially signified that act 
of God, which on the one side is a release from con- 
demnation, and on the other an imputation of the 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 193 

righteousness of Christ (Zech. iii. 4). They who bring 
forth the robe are generally interpreted as the ministers 
of reconciliation. We have the gift of the Spirit in- 
dicated in the ring which is here given. In the East, 
the ring was used often as a seal (Est. iii. 10, 12), 
which naturally brings to our minds such passages as 
Ephes. i. 13, 14 ; 2 Cor i. 22, in which a sealing by 
God's Spirit is spoken of. The shoes also are given 
him, to which answers a promise (Zech. x. 12 ; Ephes. 
vi. 15). In the words, "Bring hither the fatted calf 
and hill it" I do not see, as some have done, any 
special allusion to the Eucharist, but more generally 
to the festal rejoicing in heaven at the sinner's re- 
turn, and also in the Church and in the sinner's own 
heart. 

As in the preceding parables (verses 6 and 9), 
so here ; the householder summons his servants to 
share his joy. For this is the very nature of true joy 
— that it desires to impart itself, it runs over ; and if 
this be true of the joy on earth, how much more of 
the yet holier joy of heaven ! The father solemnly 
reinstates the wanderer, before them all, in the honors 
of a son. " This my son was dead, and is alive 
again " (Ephes. ii. 1), " he was lost, and is found" 
(1 Pet. ii. 25) ; " and they hegan to he merry." 

Here this parable, like; the two preceding, might 

have ended. But our Lord, by saying " two sons" had 
9 



194 THE PRODIGAL SON. 

promised something more. It is to derive new beauty 
from the contrast brought out between the large 
heart of God and the grudging heart of man. The 
elder brother, while the house is ringing with festal 
rejoicing, returns from " the field" where, no doubt, 
he had been as usual laboriously occupied. As he 
" drew iiigh to the house, he heard music and dan- 
cing." The singers and dancers were hired, as was 
the custom, on such occasions. Surprised, " he called 
one of the servants, and asked what these things 
meantP Note how delicately his ungenial character 
is already indicated. He does not go in, taking it 
for granted that when his father makes a feast, there 
is good cause for merriment. He prefers to learn 
from a servant " what these things meant" demand- 
ing an explanation. And then the tidings that his 
father had received his brother " safe and sound" 
■with the thought of his father's joy, move him rather 
to displeasure ; " he was angry" and in place of 
rushing to that brother's arms, " would not go in" 

Nor even when his father came out, and entreated 
him, would he lay aside his displeasure, but loudly 
complained, " Lo these many years do I serve thee, 
neither transgressed I at any time thy commandment, 
and yet thou never gavest me a hid, that I might make 
merry with my friends ; " but "this thy son" — he 
does not say my brother, — " which hath devoured 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 195 

thy living" invidiously, for in a sense it was his own, 
— " with harlots" very probably, yet only but a pre- 
sumption on his part, — " as soon as he was come" he 
says not, was returned, but speaks of him as a stran- 
ger — upon the first moment of his arrival, " thou hast 
hilled for him" not a kid, but the choicest calf in the 
stall. But there shall not be, if the father can help it, 
a cloud upon any brow, and instead of answering with 
severity, he expostulates, and would have him see his 
unreasonableness. The father's answer to the son is a 
warning, too, that he is falling into the very sin of his 
brother, when he said, " Give me the portion of goods 
thatfalleth to me" He is feeling as though he did 
not truly possess what he had with his father. " Son, 
thou art ever with me, and all that I have is thine / " 
and then he would make him see his unloving spirit ; 
" It was meet that we should make merry and he glad; 
for this thy brother " (not merely " my son" but " thy 
brother ") " was dead, and is alive again ; was lost and 
is found" 

Our view of the success of the father's expostula- 
tions, of which we are not told, will be mainly deter- 
mined by the interpretation which we give to this 
concluding portion of the parable. Those who see 
in the two brothers the relations of the Jew and 
G entile to each other and to God, have here fewer 
difficulties, than the other class of interpreters. But 



196 THE PRODIGAL SON. 

as in the interpretation I have sought to establish, 
this is denied to be the primary object of the parable, 
we must look elsewhere for a solution of the difficul- 
ties, which are indeed the same which beset us in the 
parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard. They re- 
solve themselves into this single one: Is their 
righteousness, whom the elder brother represents, 
real or not ? If real, how can it be reconciled with 
his contumacy to his father, and his unloving spirit 
towards his brother ? and how does it agree with the 
aim of this part of the parable, which is directed 
against the Pharisees, whose righteousness, for the 
most part, was hypocritical ? But, on the other side, 
if not real, how is this to be reconciled with the story, 
according to which the elder brother had remained 
ever in his father's house, or with his uncontradicted 
assertion of his own continued obedience ? Each de- 
termination of the question is embarrassed with 
difficulties. 

But there seems this possible middle course — that 
we see in those whom he represents, a low, but not 
altogether false form of legal righteousness. Such, 
had many of the Pharisees, — following, though in 
much blindness of heart, after righteousness (Eom. 
x. 1, 2), a righteousness indeed of a low sort, in the 
strivings after which they did not attain to any such 
knowledge of the plague of their own hearts as should 



THE PRODIGAL SON. 197 

render them mild and merciful to others, or thorough- 
ly humble before God. Such may have been some of 
the murmnrers present — in whom the good was not to 
be utterly denied, but who had need to be invited to 
renounce their servile for a filial spirit. And in this 
sense we must then understand the father's invitation 
to the elder son to come in. Hitherto, he had been 
laboring " in the field", but now is invited to a festi- 
val. Those whose work for God had been the task- 
work of the law, are now invited to enter into the joy 
of the Lord, the freedom of the Spirit. Thus we have 
the Gospel preached to the legalist as well as to the 
gross sinner, love speaking in both cases. 

It is plainly seen by the elder son's reply, " thou 
never gavest me a Tcid, " that he is ignorant of the 
nature of that kingdom to which he is uninvited. He 
is looking to get something from God, instead of pos- 
sessing all things in God. Instead of feeling it his 
true reward, that he had ever been with his father, 
he rather would plead this as establishing his claim 
to some other reward. In the reply, " Son, thou art 
ever with me, and all that I have is thine" we must 
place the emphasis not on " thou" but on "with me" 
What need to talk of other friends ? Thou art ever 
with a better than all, with myself. Why shouldest 
thou have expected a kid, when "all that I have is 



198 THE PRODIGAL SOIST. 

thine " ? These last words wonderfully declare to us 
tlie true nature of the rewards of the kingdom. In 
the free kingdom of love one has not less because 
another has more. To each of his children the 
Lord says, "All that I have is thine:" if then 
any is straitened, it is not in God, but in his own 
heart. 

The issue of these expostulations could not yet 
be told, even as it was still uncertain whether the 
Scribes and Pharisees might not be won to repent- 
ance. The Lord was intimating that as yet the king- 
dom of God was not closed against them — that they, 
as well as publicans and harlots, were invited to 
leave their poor, formal service (Gal. iv. 3, 9), and to 
enter into the glorious liberties of the kingdom of 
Christ. It is true that the refusal to go in, and on 
these grounds, was fearfully fulfilled, when the Jew 
in apostolic, times refused to take part in the festival 
of reconciliation, with which the Gentile world's com- 
ing into the kingdom was being celebrated. (Acts xiii. 
45 ; xiv. 19 ; xvii. 5, 13 ; xviii. 12.) If his brother had 
first been obliged to serve a painful apprenticeship to 
the law, it might have been different (Acts. xv. 1). 
But as it was, it was more than could be borne. At 
the same time, we Gentiles must not forget that at 
the end of the present dispensation all will be re- 
versed, and that we shall be in danger of playing the 



THE PEODIGAL SON. 199 

part of the elder brother, and shall do so if we grudge 
at the largeness of the grace bestowed upon the Jew, 
who is now feeding upon husks, far away from his 
Father's house. 



XXV. 

THE UNJUST STEWARD. 
Luke xvi. 1-9. 

This parable, of which the difficulties are exceed- 
ingly great, has been the subject of manifold, and 
those the most opposite, interpretations. I cannot 
doubt, however, that we have here a parable of 
Christian prudence, Christ exhorting us to use the 
world and the world's goods in a manner against itself 
and for God.- As I proceed, I shall note the meanings 
given to the parable by the best interpreters, and 
also, what seem the weak points in those explanations 
which I reject. 

The Lord, having finished the parable of the 
Prodigal Son, did not break off the conversation, 
but, probably after a short pause, resumed, address- 
ing His words, not to the Pharisees, but to those who 
heard Him gladly, — to "His disciples." By " His dis- 
ciples" we must not understand exclusively the 



THE UNJUST STEWARD. 201 

twelve, nor yet the multitude w r liicli hung loosely upon 
Him, but rather the whole body of those who having 
left the world's service had passed over into the ranks 
of His people. The Pharisees, it is true, were also 
hearers of His words (ver. 14), but the very mention 
of them as such shows that they were not the persons 
to whom the parable was primarily addressed. The 
Lord most probably intended, however, that some of 
His shafts should glance off upon them. 

" There was a certain rich man, which had a 
steward" Such was Eliezer in the house of Abraham 
(Gen. xxiv. 2-12, and see Gen. xxxix. 4). There is 
not the slightest ground for supposing that the stew- 
ard was falsely " accused." This meaning does not lie 
in the word. Indeed, his own words (ver. 3) seem an 
acknowledgment of his guilt ; and his after con- 
duct will allow no conclusion, but that the accusation 
had its foundation in truth. The charge against him 
w T as, that he had administered his master's goods 
without due fidelity, laying them out for himself, and 
not for his lord. His lord " called him, and said unto 
him, How is it that I hear this of thee ? " — " of thee" 
the expostulation of indignant surprise. " Give an 
account of thy stewardship, for thou may est he no 
longer steward" 

They who, like Anselm, see in this parable the 
rise, growth, and fruits of repentance, lay much stress 
9* 



202 THE UNJUST STEWARD. 

on these words, " How is it that I hear this of thee ? " 
It is, they think, the voice of God speaking to the 
sinner; and the threat, "thou may est be no longer 
steward" is in like manner a warning that he will 
soon be removed from his earthly stewardship, and 
have to render an account. He feels that when he is 
once removed, there will be no help for him, and there- 
fore he seeks, while he has time, to do good with that 
which is committed to him. He is, they say, still called 
the " unjust " steward, not because he remains such, 
but for the encouragement of penitents, like Rahab 
the harlot^ &c. But there is nothing in the man 
which shows repentance, but only an utterance of fear 
lest poverty and distress come upon him ; and the 
explanation of his being still called " unjust," is quite 
unsatisfactory. 

But now he counsels with himself, and first he 
feels his helplessness ; yet this does not last long. 
" I am resolved what to do / that when I am put out 
of the stewardship they may receive me into 'their 
houses" as one from whom they have received kind- 
nesses. Hereupon follows the collusion between him 
and his lord's debtors. The two, who are spoken of 
here, owed, the one a hundred measures of oil, the 
other a hundred measures of wheat. "We may sup- 
pose that the rich man had sold, through his steward, 
a portion of his farm products to these debtors, on 



THE UNJUST STEWARD. 203 

credit. They were probably merchants, or other 
factors, who had given their notes of hand, in which 
they acknowledged the amount received, and their in- 
debtedness to that amount. These, which remained 
in the steward's keeping, he now returns to them, — 
" Take hack thy bill," — bidding them to alter them, 
or make new ones, in which they should confess to 
having received smaller amounts of oil and wheat, 
and consequently to owe so much less. 

In this lowering of the bills, Vitringa finds the 
key of the parable, and gives the following interpreta- 
tion, noteworthy for its exceeding ingeniousness. The 
rich man is God, the steward the Pharisees, or rather 
all the ecclesiastical leaders of the people, who were 
stewards of the mysteries of the kingdom of God. 
But they were accused by the prophets (Ezek. xxxiv. 
2, Mai. ii. 8), and also by Christ, that they used their 
power, not for the glory of God, but for themselves, 
They feel the justice of the accusation, and they now 
therefore seek to make themselves friends of the debt- 
ors of their Lord, of sinful men, — acting still as if 
they had authority. They seek to make these friends 
by lowering the standard of righteousness and obedi- 
ence, allowing men to say, " It is a gift " (Matt. xv. 
5), suffering them lightly to put away their wives 
(Luke xvi. 18), and by various devices making slack 
the law of God (Matt, xxiii. 16), — thus obtaining favor 



204 THE TJXJUST STEWARD. 

with, men, and enabling themselves to retain their 
honors. This interpretation gives a distinct meaning 
to the lowering of the bills, — " Write fifty" " Write 
fourscore" — which very few others do. The moral 
will then be that which is commonly drawn from the 
parable : Be prudent as these children of this world, 
but while they use heavenly things for earthly objects, 
do you use earthly things for heavenly objects. 

Connected with this view is another, according to 
which the unjust steward is set forth for the Phari- 
sees to imitate. They were the stewards in a dispen- 
sation soon to close ; and an exhortation is found here, 
that in the little while before the kingdom of Christ 
should be set up, they should cultivate that spirit 
which alone would give them entrance into the king- 
dom not to be moved, the spirit which they so much 
lacked, of love and meekness toward all men. But 
how shall this interpretation be reconciled with the 
words, " He said also unto his disciples" with which 
the Evangelist introduces the parable ? 

But to return; — this child of the present world 
filled up the short time remaining to him with new 
acts of unrighteousness. It is not said that he at- 
tempted to conceal his fraudulent arrangement, or 
that he called his lord's debtors together secretly. 
Probably, in his desperation, the thing was done open- 
ly, and the arrangement was such as, from some cause 



THE UNJUST STEWARD. 205 

or other, being once completed, must be permitted to 
stand. Were it meant to have been a secret transac- 
tion, the steward would scarcely have obtained even 
the limited praise which he does obtain as a skilful 
adapter of his means to his ends. Least of all, would 
he have obtained such praise, if it had depended 
merely on the forbearance of his master, in the case 
of discovery being made, whether the arrangement 
should be allowed to stand. 

But whether clandestine or not, the arrangement 
was certainly a fraudulent one, and any attempt to 
mitigate the dishonesty is hopeless. It may be said, 
indeed, that this dishonesty is not of the essence of the 
parable, but an inconvenience arising from the inade- 
quacy of earthly relationships to set forth divine ; that 
while in worldly things it never can be that a servant 
dealing wholly with reference to his own interests 
would at the same time forward in the best manner 
his lord's, in heavenly things our true interests abso- 
lutely coincide with those of our heavenly Lord ; so 
that when we administer the things committed to us for 
Him, then we lay them out also for ourselves, and when 
for ourselves, for our eternal gain, then also for Him. 

"And the lord commended the unjust steicard^ 
because he had done wisely" It is the lord of the 
steward, who is here meant, and not our Lord, who 
does not begin to speak directly in His own person till 



206 THE UNJUST STEWARD. 

ver. 9. " Wisely " is not the happiest word that could 
have been chosen, since wisdom is never in Scripture 
disconnected from moral goodness. " Prudently " is 
clearly the right word, and is found in Wiclif s trans- 
lation. Few will deny that the phrase has something 
perplexing in it, not from its being incapable of a fair 
explanation, but from the liability of the passage to 
abuse, though it is not really as unguarded as at first 
sight it appears, for ver. 11 should never be discon- 
nected from the parable. The explanation is clearly 
this : the man's deed has two sides ; one, the side of its 
dishonesty, upon which it is most blameworthy — the 
other, the side of its prudence, which, if it be not 
particularly praiseworthy, yet is sufficiently analogous 
to a Christian virtue to make it the ground of an ex- 
hortation and rebuke to the followers of Christ. 
There are martyrs of the Devil, who put to shame the 
saints of God, and running as they do with more 
alacrity to death, than these to life (Bernard), may be 
proposed to them for their imitation. Even so our 
Lord here disentangles the steward's dishonesty from 
his prudence ; the one, of course, can only have His 
earnest rebuke, — the other may serve to provoke His 
people to a like prudence, which yet should be at 
once a holy prudence, and employed about things of 
far higher and more lasting importance. 

The next verse fully confirms this view : "For the 



THE UNJUST STEWARD. 207 

children of this world are in their generation wiser 
than the children of light ; " that is, " more prudent" 
The " children of this world" evidently means those 
who look not beyond this earth, being born of the 
spirit of the world and not of God. The phrase 
occurs but once else in Scripture (Luke xx. 34); 
though the term " children of light " may be found 
John xii. 36 ; 1 Thess. v. 5 ; Ephes. v. 8. The decla- 
ration itself has been differently understood, according 
as the words wanting to complete the sentence have 
been differently supplied. Some complete it thus — 
" The children of this world are wiser in their gene- 
ration" namely, in worldly things, " than the children 
of light " are in those same worldly things ; that is, 
earthly men are more prudent than spiritual men in 
earthly things ; even as owls see better than eagles in 
the dark. But it is hard to see how a general state- 
ment of this kind bears on the parable, which most are 
agreed urges upon the Christian a heavenly prudence. 
Others, then, are nearer the truth who complete 
the sentence thus — " The children of this world are 
wiser in their generation " (in worldly matters) " than 
the children cf light " in theirs, that is, in heavenly 
matters ; the children of light being thus rebuked that 
they are not at half the pains to win heaven, which 
the men of this world are to win earth. This is the 
meaning given, though too vaguely, by many, for it is 



208 THE UNJUST STEWARD. 

only perfectly seized when we see in the words, " in 
their generation" or as they ought to be translated, 
"unto " or " towards their generation," an allusion to 
the debtors in the parable. They, the ready accom- 
plices in the steward's fraud, showed themselves to be 
of the same generation as he was, — they were all 
children of the ungodly world ; and the Lord's dec- 
laration is, that the men of this world make their 
intercourse with one another more profitable, — obtain 
more from it, — than do the children of light their 
intercourse with one another. For what opportunities 
are missed by Christians to whom a share of the earth- 
ly mammon is intrusted, of laying up treasure in 
heaven, — of making friends for the time to come by 
showing love to the poor saints, — or generally of 
doing offices of kindness to the household of faith — to 
the men of the same generation as themselves ! 

In the following verse the Lord exhorts His disci- 
ples not to miss these opportunities, — " And I say 
unto you. Make to yourselves friends of the mammon 
of unrighteousness ^ that when ye fail , they may receive 
you into everlasting habitations" Some explain this 
"mammon of unrighteousness" as wealth unjustly 
gained by fraud and violence, but if so, the first 
recommendation would be to restore it to its rightful 
owners (Luke xix. 8). Others say it is not exactly 
wealth unjustly acquired, but that wealth which 



THE UNJUST STEWARD. 209 

from the very nature of the world's business has 
somewhat of defilement clinging to it. But a com- 
parison with ver. 11, where the equivalent phrase 
" unrighteous mammon " is set against " true riches," 
— heavenly, enduring goods, — -makes it far more prob- 
able that the words mean the uncertain mammon, 
which is one man's to-day, and another's to-morrow. 
And " mammon of unrighteousness " it may be called 
in a deeper sense, since it is certain that in all wealth 
a principle of evil is implied. In the moment of the 
Church's first love, " all that believed were together, 
and had all things common." So that though the 
possessor of the wealth may have fairly acquired it, 
yet is it not less the "unrighteous" mammon, witness- 
ing in its very existence to the absence of that highest 
love which would have rendered it impossible that a 
mine and thine should ever have existed. 

The words " that when ye fail" are, of course, 
equivalent to " that when ye die" Many, however, 
have been unwilling to refer the words that follow, 
" they may receive you" to the friends which were to 
be made by the help of the unrighteous mammon, 
as seeming to attribute too much to men and to their 
intercession. It has been thought by some, that 
" they " are the angels, and by others that God and 
Christ are to receive ; by others, again, that the 
phrase is impersonal, simply meaning " you may be 



210 THE UNJUST STEWARD. 

received." But if we look at this verse as standing 
in close connection with the parable, of which indeed 
it gives the moral, we shall see how this phrase comes 
to be used. The debtors, being made friends, were to 
receive the deposed steward into temporary habita- 
tions ; and by using these words in His practical 
application of the parable, our Lord throws back 
light upon it, and at once explains to His hearers its 
most important part. And while it is idle to assert 
that there will reside power of their own with the 
glorified saints to admit any into the kingdom of 
heaven, it is also idle to affirm that the words, " they 
may receive you" in the second clause of the sentence, 
can refer to any other than the friends mentioned in the 
first. The true parallel to, and at once the explanation 
and the guard of, this passage, is Matt. xxv. 34-40. 

In the verses 10-13, which stand in vital connec- 
tion with the parable, it is very observable that not 
prudence, but faithfulness, is especially commended, 
so as to put far away any possible abuse of it ; just as 
when our Saviour said, " Be wise as serpents," He 
immediately guarded the precept, lest it should de- 
generate into cunning, by adding, " and harmless as 
doves." Earthly things are slightingly called " that 
which is least" as compared with those spiritual gifts 
which are " much " ; they are called " that which is 
another maris? by comparison with the heavenly 



THE CNJUST STEWAKD. 211 

goods, which when possessed are our own, and be- 
come a part of our very selves. In the dispensing, how- 
ever, of these worldly things, He declares that a man 
may prove his fidelity, and will inevitably show what is 
in him, and whether he be fit to be intrusted with that 
which has a true and enduring value, namely, with a 
ministration in the kingdom of God. And in ver. 13, 
He further states what the fidelity is, which is required 
in this stewardship,— it is a choosing of God instead 
of mammon for our lord. For in this world, we are 
claimed by two masters: one is God, man's rightful 
lord ; the other is this unrighteous mammon, which 
was given to be our servant, to be used by us for God 
— but which has, in this sinful world, erected itself 
into a lord, and now demands obedience from us, 
which if we yield, we can no longer be the faithful 
servants of God. God, for instance, will command a 
scattering, when mammon will urge to a further gath- 
ering ; God will require spending upon others, when 
mammon, or the world, will urge to a spending upon 
our own lusts (Jas. iv. 4) ; one must be despised, if 
the other is held to — it is impossible to be faithful to 
both : " Ye cannot serve God and Mammon" Such 
appears to me to be the connection between ver. 13 
and the preceding verses, and between the whole of 
these verses and the parable of which they are in- 
tended to give the moral. 



XXVI. 

THE EICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 

Luke xvi. 19-31. 

IIowevek loosely strung together verses 15-18 
may at first sight appear, there is a thread of connec- 
tion running through them, and afterwards joining 
them with the parable, — there is one leading thought 
throughout, namely, that in all are contained rebuke 
and threatening for the Pharisees. They had heard 
our Lord's exhortation to a liberal bounty, and they 
testified their scorn, whereupon He turned to them, 
and rebuked their hypocrisy ; while they were covet- 
ous, they sought a reputation for righteousness among 
men. It is then announced to them (ver. 16) that that 
dispensation, of which they were the stewards, was 
passing away, and a larger dispensation, in which they 
should no more have the " key of knowledge" to ad- 
mit or to exclude, is begun, — and " every mem press-: 
eth into it." Not that the law itself was to beabol- 



THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 213 

ished, for that would be eternal as the God who gave 
it (ver. 17); and how great was their guilt, who, 
while pretending to guard its honor, tampered with 
some of its most sacred requirements, as in those con- 
cerning marriage (ver. 18) ; and thereupon the parable 
follows. 

But, that being evidently addressed to the Phari- 
sees, a difficulty appears. They were indeed " covet- 
ous" (ver. 14), but prodigal excess in living, like 
that of the rich man, is nowhere imputed to them. 
On the contrary, we learn from contemporary histori- 
cal sources that they were remarkably abstemious. 
Their sins were in the main spiritual, and what other 
sins they had were such as were compatible with a 
high reputation for spirituality. Mosheim supposes 
the parable, therefore, to have been directed against 
the Sadducees ; but there is no proof that any were 
present ; nor is there any ~hrecik between ver. 18 and 
19. 

The following seems to be the explanation : While 
it is true that covetousness, and not prodigality, was 
the sin of the Pharisees, yet both of these, hoarding 
and squandering, are so equally the consequences of 
unbelief in God, and in God's word, that when the 
Lord would rebuke their sin, He might take His exam- 
ple from a sin opposite in appearance to theirs. For 
it ought never to be forgotten, that it is not the pri- 



214 THE KICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 

inary purpose of the parable to teach the fearful 
consequences which will follow the abuse of wealth 
and contempt of the poor, but the fearful consequences 
of unbelief, of having the heart set on this world, and 
refusing to believe in that invisible world, here known 
only to faith, until by a miserable and too late expe- 
rience the existence of such an unseen world has been 
discovered. The sin of Dives in its root is unbelief : the' 
squandering on self, and contempt of the poor, are 
only the forms which it takes. His unbelief also 
shows itself in supposing that his brethren, while 
refusing to give heed to the sure word of God, would 
heed a ghost. This is of the very essence of unbelief, 
that it gives that credence to portents which it refuses 
to the truth of God. Caligula, who mocked at the 
existence of the gods, would hide himself under a bed 
when it thundered ; and superstition and incredulity 
are twin brothers. It is most important to keep in 
mind that this, the rebuke of unbelief, is the central 
thought and aim of the parable. 

But it is worthy of notice, that besides the literal 
and obvious, there has also ever been an allegorical 
interpretation of it. It has been suggested by Augus- 
tine, Theophylact, and some modern commentators, 
that the past and future relations of the Jew and Gen- 
tile are here set forth. Dives is the Jew, or the Jewish 
people, favored, self-righteous, and contemptuous of 



THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 215 

the Gentile. To the Pharisees, as the representatives of 
the nation, it is announced that an end is approaching, 
nay, has come upon them already — the former state of 
things is to be utterly abolished. The believing Gen- 
tiles — Lazarus — are to be brought by the messengers 
of the new covenant into the consolations of the Gos- 
pel ; but the Jews — Dives — are to forfeit all the priv- 
ileges which they have abused, and will find themselves 
with God's wrath abiding upon them to the uttermost. 
If the present had been expressly named a para- 
ble, it would tend to confirm this or some similar 
interpretation ; for according to that commonly re- 
ceived, it is no parable, the rich man means a rich 
man, and the poor man, a poor — the purple and fine 
linen mean just those things, and so on. Thus, in fact, 
the question whether this is a parable or simply a 
history (real or fictitious, it matters not), depends on 
the manner in which it is interpreted. Those, who 
support the allegorical*' interpretation, insist that it 
loses none of its practical value thereby, only the 
lower selfishness of the flesh will be used as a symbol 
to set forth the more spiritual selfishness ; in addition 
to the warning to the world, there will be another 
deeper warning to the Church that it exalt not itself 
in the multitude of its own privileges, but that it 
have a deep and feeling sense of the spiritual wants 
of all who know not God, and seek earnestly to re- 



216 THE EICH MAN AND LAZAEUS. 

move tliem. I will say more of this interpretation 
presently : it is not incompatible with the commonly 
received interpretation, to which we now return. 

" There was a certain rich man, which teas cloth- 
ed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously 
every day" — habitually clothed, for this the word 
implies. The extreme costliness of the purple dye of 
antiquity is well known ; it was accounted, too, the 
royal color, and the purple garment was then, as now 
in the East, a royal gift (Esth. viii. 15 ; Dan. v. 7). 
With it, idols were often clothed (Jer. x. 9). There 
was pride, then, as w T ell as luxury in its use. And the 
byssus, rightly translated "fine linen" was hardly in 
less price or esteem. Yet, while the rich man plainly 
sought out for himself all that was costliest, it cannot 
be observed too often that he is not accused of any 
breach of the law, like those mentioned in Jas. v. 1-6. 
In Augustine's words, — " Jesus said not, a calumnia- 
tor, — he said not, an oppressor of the poor, — he said 
not, a spoiler of orphans : nothing of these. But — . 
' There was a certain rich man.'' And what was 
his crime ? A lazar lying at his gate, and lying unre- 
lieved." He is not even accused of being a glutton. 
There is nothing to make us think of him as other 
than a reputable man, — one who desired to remove 
from himself all things painful to the flesh, to sur- 
round himself with all things pleasurable.— His name 



THE RICH MAN AND LAZAKUS. 217 

Christ has not told ns, but the poor man's only. 
" Jesus," says Caj etan, " of a purpose named the beggar, 
but the rich man he designated merely as ' a certain 
man] so to testify that the spiritual order of things is 
contrary to the worldly. In the world, the names of 
the rich are known, but the names of the poor are 
either not known, or if known are counted as unworthy 
to be particularly noted." 

At the gate of this rich man, the beggar Lazarus 
was flung — brought there, it may be, by those who 
counted they had done enough in casting him under 
the eye of one who might so easily help him. As the 
rich man's splendor was painted in a few strokes, so 
in a few as expressive is the utter misery of Lazarus 
set forth. Like Job, he was " full of sores," — hungry, 
and no man gave to him, for it seems most probable, 
that he desired, but in vain, " to be fed with the 
crumbs which fell from the rich marts table" He 
found sympathy only from the dumb animals ; " the 
dogs came and licked his sores" This circumstance 
seems mentioned to set forth the cruelty of the rich 
man in its strongest light ; — that while he remained un- 
moved, even the pity of the brutes was stirred. "We 
have in fact in the two descriptions stroke for stroke. 
Dives is covered with purple and fine linen ; Lazarus 
is covered only with sores. The one fares sumptuous- 
ly ; the other desires to be fed with crumbs. The one 
10 



218 THE RICH MAI* AND LAZAKUS. 

(as we may imagine) has numerous attendants to humor 
every caprice ; the other, only dogs to tend his sores. 

The faith and patience of Lazarus must be assumed, 
since his poverty of itself would never have brought 
him to Abraham's bosom. In all homiletic use of this 
parable, this never should be left out of sight. Thus 
Augustine tells the poor that poverty of spirit must 
go along with external poverty ; and he often bids 
them note, how the very Abraham into whose bosom 
Lazarus was carried, was one who on earth had been 
rich in flocks, and in herds, and in all possessions. 
" "What doth it profit thee," he says, " if thou lackest 
opportunity and burnest with desire ? " 

But this worldly glory and worldly misery are 
alike to have an end; "It came to pass that the beg- 
gar died /" and how mighty the change ! he whom 
none but the dogs had cared for, is now carried by 
angels " into Abraham's bosom" This last phrase 
has been sometimes explained as though he was 
brought into the chief est place of honor and felicity. 
But it is rather to find its explanation from John i. 18, 
as a figurative phrase to express the deep quietness 
of an innermost communion. It is the state of pain- 
less expectation intervening between the death of Chris- 
tians, and their perfect bliss at the Saviour's coming 
in His kingdom. It is the " Paradise " of Luke xxiii. 
43, the place of the souls under the altar, Eev. vi. 9 ; 



THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 219 

as some distinguish it, it is blessedness, but not glory. 
To this haven of rest, Lazarus was safely borne. 

But " the rich man also died, and was hurled" 
subsequently, as it would appear. Lazarus was more 
early exempted from the misery of his earthly lot ; 
Dives was allowed a longer time for repentance. It 
is possible that the putting of Lazarus under his eye 
had been his final trial ; his neglect of him, the last 
drop that made the cup of God's long-suffering to run 
over. He " also died and was buried" There is a 
sublime irony, a stain upon all earthly glory, in this 
mention of his burial, connected as it is with what 
follows. 'No doubt we may infer that he had a splen- 
did funeral ; this splendid carrying to the grave is for 
him what the carrying into Abraham's bosom was for 
Lazarus, — it is his equivalent. But his death is for 
him an awakening from his flattering dream of ease 
and pleasure upon the stern and terrible realities of 
the life to come. He has sought to save his life, and 
has lost it. The play, in which he has acted the rich 
man, is ended, and as he goes off the stage, he is strip- 
ped bare of all the trappings with which he has been 
furnished in order to sustain his " part ; " all that re- 
mains is the fact that he has played it badly, and so 
will have extremest blame from Him who allotted 
him the character to sustain. (See Chrysostom's fine 
illustration, in the Appendix.) 



220 THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 

From this verse, the scene of the parable passes 
into the unknown world of spirits, but He to whom 
both worlds are open and manifest speaks without 
astonishment, as of things which He knows. It is not 
easy now to separate between what is merely figure, 
vehicle for truth, and the essential truth itself. We 
may safely say that the form in which the expression 
of pain, and of desire after alleviation, embodies itself, 
is figurative, as is the dialogue between Dives and 
Abraham. It is indeed the hope and longing for de- 
liverance which alternately rises, and is again crushed 
by the voice of the condemning law speaking in and 
through the conscience ; as by the seeing of Lazarus in 
Abraham's bosom, we recognize the truth that the 
misery of the wicked will be heightened by the com- 
parison which they will be continually making of 
their lost estate with the blessedness of the faithful. 

But to return ; he that had that gorgeous funeral, 
is now " in hell" or rather, in Hades ; for as " A Ira- 
harrfs hosom " is not heaven, though it will issue in 
heaven, so neither is Hades " hell" though to issue in 
it, when death and Hades shall be cast into the lake 
of fire, which is the proper hell (Rev. xx. 14). It is 
the place of painful restraint, where the souls of the 
wicked are reserved to the judgment of the great day ; 
it is " the deep " mentioned in Luke viii. 31, — for as 
that other blessed place has a foretaste of heaven, so 



THE EICH MAN AND LAZAKUS. 221 

has this place a foretaste of hell ; Dives is " in tor- 
ments" his purple robe has become a garment of 
fire, as he himself says : " / am tormented in this 
flame" 

We can believe that for a while all may have 
seemed as a fearful dream. But when at length he 
had convinced himself it was no dream, but an awak- 
ing, and would take the measure of his actual condi- 
tion, " he lifted %ip his eyes, and seeth Abraham afar 
off, and Lazarus in his bosom" (Isai. lxv. 13, 14). 
" And he cried and said, Father Abraham" still 
clinging to the hope that his fleshly privileges will 
profit him something. But this, which was once his 
glory, is now the very stress of his guilt. That he, a 
son of Abraham, that man of princely heart, should 
have so denied through his life all which the name 
" son of Abraham" was meant to teach him, this it 
was which had brought him to that place. Nor does 
Abraham deny the relationship — "Son;" yet this, 
coupled as it was with the refusal of his request, 
rings the knell of his latest hope. Infinitely slight 
was the best alleviation he had looked for, — a drop 
of water on his fiery tongue ! Nothing could have 
marked more strongly how far he has fallen, how 
conscious he has himself become of the depth of that 
fall. Augustine : " The proud man of time, the beg- 
gar of hell." 



222 ' THE EICH MAN AND LAZABUS. 

In this prayer of the rich man we have the only 
invocation of saints in Scripture, and certainly not a 
very encouraging one. He can speak of " father 
Abraham," and his "father's house," but he will 
know nothing of that other Father whom the Prodi- 
gal had found. For he is as far as heaven is from 
hell, from the faith of the prophet (Isai. lxiii. 16). 
And the pity which he refused to show, he fails to 
obtain. " He lacked the drop, who denied the crumb " 
(Augustine). He has not made friends of the mam- 
mon of unrighteousness, and now has none to receive 
him into everlasting habitations. It is clear that 
Abraham's reply is a refusal of his petition, but the 
exact meaning of the words, " Thou in thy lifetime 
reeeivedst thy good things" is not so certain. There are 
two explanations,— the commonest one makes " thy 
good things " to signify temporal felicities. " Son, 
thou hadst thy choice, the things temporal, or the 
things eternal, thou didst choose those ; and now it is 
idle to think of altering thy choice." The other ex- 
planation would make " thy good things " to be good 
actions or good qualities. In the words of Bishop 
Sanderson, it was as if Abraham had said, " If thou 
hadst anything good in thee, remember thou hast 
had thy reward in earth already, and now there re- 
maineth nothing but the full punishment of thine 
ungodliness in hell ; but as for Lazarus, he hath had 



THE RICH MAN AND LAZAHUS. 223 

the chastisement of his infirmities [his ' evil things 3 ] 
on earth already, and now remaineth for him nothing 
but the full rewards (through grace) of his godliness, 
in heaven." This was the view of Chrysostom, as 
also of Gregory the Great, and it has certainly some- 
thing to commend it. 

But however this may be, there is this meaning in 
the passage, which is found so often in Scripture, 
namely, that a course of unbroken prosperity is ever 
an augury of ultimate reprobation (Ps. xvii. 14, Luke 
vi. 24, 25). If the dross which is in every man be not 
purged out by the fire of affliction, he cannot be a 
partaker of holiness. Such was the experience of 
Dives. Moreover, besides that law of retaliation, 
requiring that the unmerciful should not receive 
mercy, the fact is brought home to Dives, that with 
death begins the separation of the elements of good 
and evil, which elements in this world are mingled. 
Good is gathered to good, and evil to evil, — and this 
separation is permanent. " Between us and you there 
is a great gulf fixed" a yawning chasm, too deep to 
be filled up, and too wide to be bridged over ; " so 
that they who would pass from hence to you cannot, 
neither can they pass to us that would come from 
thence" Of course the desire of passing thither 
cannot be for the purpose of changing their con- 
dition ; but they cannot pass, he would say, even to 



224 THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 

yield a moment's comfort to any who are in that 
place. 

But though repulsed for himself, he has a request 
to urge for others. u I pray thee, therefore, father, 
that thou wouldest send him to my fathers house, for 
I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, 
lest they also come into this place of torment" Jj2lz- 
arus will be able to " testify " to the reality of that 
unseen world at which he and his brothers perhaps 
had mocked together. In this anxiety for his breth- 
ren's good, some have found the proof that suffering 
was already doing its work by awakening within him 
the slumbering germ of good ; and with this view, 
would of necessity be connected his own ultimate res- 
toration. But the request grows out of another root. 
There lies in it a secret justifying of himself, and ac- 
cusing of God : " If only I had been sufficiently 
warned, if God had only given me clear evidences of 
the need of repentance, and of this place as the goal 
of a worldly life, I had never come hither. But at 
least, let my brethren be warned." 

Abraham's answer is brief, and almost stern. 
" They are warned. They have Moses and the proph- 
ets, let them hear them" Our Lord plainly indicated 
thus, that to hear Moses was to hear of life eternal 
and an after retribution (Matt. xxii. 31, 32). But he 
again cries : " IS ay, father Abraham, hit if oneicent 



THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 225 

unto them from the dead, they %oill repent." The 
man's contempt of God's word, which he showed on 
earth, follows him beyond the grave. We have here, 
reappearing in hell, that " Show us a sign that we 
may believe," which was so often on the lips of the 
Pharisees on earth. But "if they hear not Moses 
and the prophets, neither will they he persuaded 
though one rose from the dead" These words de- 
mand care. Dives had said,"#Aey will repent;" 
Abraham replies, they will not even "le persuaded." 
Dives — "if one went unto them from the dead;" 
Abraham — " No, not if one rose from the dead." 

This reply of Abraham's is most weighty, as giv- 
ing us an insight into the nature of faith, that it is a 
moral act ; an act of the will and the affections as 
well as of the understanding ; so that it cannot be 
forced by signs and miracles, for where there is a de- 
termined alienation of the will and affections from the 
truth, no impression made by these miracles, even if 
they be allowed to be genuine, will be more than tran- 
sitory. Nor will there fail always to be a loophole 
somewhere, by which unbelief can escape ; and this 
is well, or we should have in the Church the faith of 
devils, who believe and tremble. Compare the con- 
duct of the Pharisees (John xi. 47 ; xii. 10). "We see 
what multitudes acknowledge that the resurrection of 
Christ sets the seal to His claims, and yet arc not 
10* 



226 THE RICH MAX ASD LAZARUS. 

brought at all nearer to repentance and faith. In ex- 
actly the spirit of Abraham's refusal, our Lord acted 
after His resurrection (Acts x. 41). This was a mercy 
as well as a judgment, for they would not have been 
persuaded even by one who rose from the dead. 

It remains only to give a slight sketch of their in- 
terpretation, who maintain that this parable has also 
an allegorical meaning. Dives then represents the 
Jewish nation, clad in the purple of the king, and the 
fine linen of the priest. They were amply furnished 
with all spiritual blessings (Isai. v. 2, 4 ; Rom. ix. 4). 
But this talent of talents they turned into a selfish 
thing ; Lazarus the beggar lay unrelieved at their 
gate, and without it, for the Gentiles were " aliens 
from the commonwealth of Israel," — and full of 
sores. These sores of the Gentile world are enumer- 
ated in Eom. i. 23-32. That the beggar desired the 
crumbs of the rich man's table, has plainly a mean- 
ing. The yearning of the Gentiles after something 
better than aught they possessed, was, in fact, a yearn- 
ing after that which the Jew had, and which, had he 
been faithful, he would have imparted. 

The dying of Lazarus and his reception into Abra- 
ham's bosom are explained by 1 Pet. ii. 10 — " which 
in time past were not a people, but are now the peo- 
ple of God," fee., etc. (Eph. ii. 11-13). But Dives 
dies also, — the Jewish economy comes to an end, and 



THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 227 

now Dives is " in hell" Who can read the history of 
the latter days of the Jewish nation, and not feel the 
force of this ? Nay, and ever since have they not 
been " in torments ? " In proof, turn to the word of 
prophecy (Lev. xxvi. 14-39 ; Deut. xxviii. 15-68), or 
call to mind our Lord's words (Luke xiii. 28-30). 
But as Dives looked for relief from Lazarus, so is the 
Jew looking for the alleviation of his miseries through 
some bettering of his outward estate, — some improve- 
ment of his civil condition, but which, if granted to 
him, would prove no more than a drop of water on the 
tongue. He knows not that it is the wrath of God 
which constitutes his misery. 

By the five brethren of Dives will be set forth, 
according to this scheme, all who hereafter are tempt- 
ed to the same abuse of their spiritual privileges. 
"When the Gentile Church sins as the Jewish Church 
did before it, glorying in its gifts rather than using 
them for others, contented to see in its very bosom a 
population outcast, save in name, from its privileges 
and blessings, and to see beyond its limits millions of 
heathens to whom it has but little care to impart the 
knowledge of Christ, then is it in danger, like the 
brethren of Dives, of coming with him to this place of 
torment. So that the latter part of this parable 
speaks to us Gentiles, as Paul spoke to the Gentile 
converts at Kome; u Behold therefore the goodness 



228 THE KICH MAN AND LAZARUS. 

and severity of God ; on them which fell severity, but 
towards thee, goodness, if thou continue in His good- 
ness ; otherwise, thou also shalt be cut off" (Bom. 
xi. 22). 



XXVIL 

UNPKOFITABLE SERVANTS. 
Luke xvii. 7-10. 

Some interpreters find a connection between this 
parable and the discourse which precedes it, while 
others affirm that none can be traced. Theophylact 
supposes, that in the sixth verse the Lord had declared 
how great things a living faith would enable His dis- . 
ciples to perform ; but lest they should thereby fall 
into a snare of pride, He spoke this parable. Other 
expositors, seeking no connection, affirm that it merely 
teaches, in a general manner, how God is debtor to no 
man, that all we can do is of duty, and nothing of 
merit, and hence that deep humility becomes us. 

Altogether different from these interpretations is 
that proposed by Grotius. According to this, the 
parable is made to represent the servile standing of 
the Jew under the old covenant. The arguments are 



230 UNPROFITABLE SERVANTS. 

mainly these : the common interpretation sets forth in 
a wrong aspect the relations between Christ and His 
people. Is it likely that He who said, " Henceforth 
I call you not servants, but I have called you friends," 
would bring forward in so strong a light, the service 
done to Him as one merely servile, and for which He 
would render them no thanks ? Compare Luke xii. 
37. On the other hand, the parable does, it is affirmed, 
exactly set forth the relation of the greater part of 
the Jews to God. To be sure, they did a certain 
work, but as it was without love and faith, they were 
" unprofitable servants" in whom the Lord could take 
no pleasure. 

There is something attractive in this exposition, 
and it is worthy of respectful consideration. Yet the 
present parable need not be opposed to, but rather 
should be balanced with, that other saying of our 
Lord's (Luke xii. 37) above referred to. This is the 
way God might deal ; it is not said that He will deal 
in this way. This is the relation which, in strict jus- 
tice, He might assume ; the other is that which, ac- 
cording to the riches of His grace, He will assume. 
We are humbly to remember this. It is only to the 
humble, indeed, that He can give grace, for as it is 
certain that the unclean vessel will altogether taint 
the wine poured into it, so, without humility, the gifts 
of God will be perverted to spiritual wickedness, more 




UNPROFITABLE SERVANTS. 231 

deadly than the natural corruptions of the heart. 
Doubtless, the relation of the Christian to his Lord is 
set forth here under a somewhat severer aspect than 
is usual under the ISTew Covenant. (Our translation 
makes it seem severer than it need ; for the words, 
" Doth He thank that servant ? " would be better, 
" Doth He count Himself especially beholden to that 
servant ? " ) Yet the experience of every heart will 
bear witness that this side of the truth as well as the 
other, should be set forth, — that we should feel that a 
necessity is laid upon us, — that we are not to question 
our Master's will, but to do it. This fear does not 
exclude love, but is its true guardian ; they mutually 
support one another : for while it is true that motives 
drawn from gratitude and love must ever be the chief 
incentives to obedience (Rom. xii. 1), yet so long as 
our hearts are not made perfect in love, we must be 
presented with others also. And while our Lord is 
graciously pleased to accept our work, and to reward 
it, we should ever be reminded that this is an act of 
His free grace ; for there is another footing upon 
which it might be placed, that of the parable, upon 
which we ourselves must evermore put it. 

A more real difficulty, as it appears to me, is this : 
that in the first part of the parable (ver. 7, 8) the 
purpose seems to be to commend patience in the 
Lord's work — that we do not, after we have made 



232 UNPROFITABLE SERVANTS. 

some exertion, account that we have a claim to be 
exempted henceforth, from strenuous toil, but rather 
take example from the servant. But in the second 
part (vers. 9, 10), it is no longer this patient continu- 
ance in well-doing, but humility, that is enjoined — the 
confession that, at best, our service is poor and of 
little value. The solution is, however, I suppose, that 
impatience under deferred reward, with the desire to 
be released from labor, springs from over-estimation of 
our work ; while he who feels that all which he has yet 
done is but little, as he will not think that he has a 
claim to a release from toil, so neither will he count 
that God is his debtor. The two wrong states of mind 
spring from the same root, and are to be met by the 
same remedy, namely, by our learning to know what 
our actual relation to God is, — that it is one of ser- 
vants to a master. 

With regard to the actual words of the parable, 
there is not much to remark. The waiting at the 
table with the dress girded was a mark of servitude. 
Note, then, the condescension of the Son of God, in 
His saying, Luke xii. 37, and in His doing, John xiii. 
4. As to the confession which He puts into the 
mouths of His disciples, " When ye shall have done 
all these things which are commanded you, say, We 
are unprofitable servants " (as many have observed 
before), if this they are to say when they have done 



UNPKOFITABLE SERVANTS. 233 

all, "how much more, when their consciences bear them 
witness, as his conscience must bear witness to every 
man, that they have grievously failed and come short 
of their duty. 



XXYHL 

THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

Luke xviii. 1-8. 

" He spake a parable unto them" the disciples, 
" that men ought always to pray " that men must needs 
pray always, if they would escape the things coming 
on the earth (see Luke xvii.). Not so much the duty, 
or the suitableness, as the absolute necessity of instant 
persevering prayer is here declared. In this pre- 
cept to pray always (comp. Eph. vi. 18 ; 1 Thess. v. 
17), there is nothing impossible commanded if we re- 
gard prayer as the continual desire of the soul after 
God, — having indeed its times of intensity, but not 
being confined to those times. "That soul," says 
Donne, " that is accustomed to direct herself to God 
upon every occasion, that, whatsoever string be strick- 
en in her, base or treble, her high or her low estate, 
is ever turned towards God — that soul prays some- 
times when it does not know that it prays." 






THE UNJUST JUDGE. 235 

None but the Son of God might have ventured 
to use the comparison of an unrighteous judge. We 
must not seek, as many have striven to do, to extenu- 
ate his unrighteousness ; but on the contrary, the 
greater we conceive this to have been, the more does 
the encouraging truth come out which the Lord 
would enforce. If a bad man will yield to the mere 
force of the importunity which he hates, how much 
more certainly will a righteous God be prevailed 
on by the faithful prayer which He loves. This judge 
had reached that point of reckless wickedness, that 
he was alike indifferent to God and man. The case, 
therefore, of any suppliant was the more hopeless, 
especially of one weak and poor. Such, no doubt, 
was the widow of the parable. Many writers have 
noticed the exceeding desolation of the state of widow- 
hood in the East, and the consequent exposure to all 
manner of oppression ; of this, the numerous warnings 
in Scripture against such oppression, are sufficient 
evidence (Exod. xxii. 22 ; Deut. xxiv. 17 ; Mai. iii. 
5, and many more). 

How fitly, then, does this widow represent the 
Church under that persecution which is always going 
forward. Nor need we see in her only the Church 
at large, but also any single soul in conflict with the 
powers of darkness and the world. The adversary 
then (1 Pet. v. 8) is the prince of the darkness of 



236 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

this world. The elect are here represented as in con- 
flict with those adverse powers, till under a sense of 
their helplessness to affect their own deliverance, a 
cry is wrung out from them for aid ; chiefly for that 
which shall be final and complete, at the revelation of 
the Son of Man in His glory. The words in which 
their need finds utterance, "Avenge me of mine adver- 
sary" wonderfully express the relation in which we 
stand to the evil which, we are conscious, is mightily 
working within us, — that it is not our very self, but 
an alien power, holding us in bondage. It is one 
great work of the Spirit of God to make us feel this 
distinctness between us and the evil which is in us 
(Eom vii.). The renewed man knows that he has an 
adversary, but for his comfort he knows also that this 
adversary is not his very self ; and knowing this, he 
is able to cry, " Deliver me from the oppression of 
mine adversary/ 5 This is the same petition that we 
make daily, when we say, " Deliver us from evil," or 
rather " from the Evil One." 

For a time the judge was deaf to the widow's pe- 
tition ; " He would not for a while" God often seems 
to man to be acting thus. And when His people re- 
ceive no speedy answer, they are tempted to hard 
thoughts of God, and to say with the storm-tost disci- 
ples, " Carest thou not that we perish " ? Now this 
parable is intended, in fact, to meet this very difficulty 



THE UNJUST JUDGE. 237 

and temptation. — ¥e have, in ver. 4, 5, recorded, not 
what was spoken aloud, but the voice of the heart, as 
that heart spake in the hearing of God. " He said 
within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard 
man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will 
avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me." 
Compare Matt. xv. 23 ; this parable and the miracle 
there recorded, form altogether an interesting parallel. 
It is likely that between the parable and its appli- 
cation, — between ver. 5 and 6, — the Lord paused 
awhile, and then again resumed ; " Hear what the 
Unjust judge saith / and shall not God avenge His 
own elect ? " The righteous God is here opposed to 
the unrighteous judge ; the elect, the precious before 
God, to the widow, the despised among men ; their 
prayers, to her clamor; and the days and nights 
during which those prayers are made, to the compara- 
tively short time during which she beset the judge. 
The certainty that the elect will be heard, rests not, 
however, on their mighty and assiduous crying, as its 
ultimate ground, but on their election by God, which 
is, therefore, here brought especially into notice. Shall 
He not avenge them, asks the Lord, " though He bear 
long with them ?" or since that phrase is mostly used 
in Scripture, to set forth the relation of God to the 
sins, of men, it would avoid perplexity if here we 
should use the phrase, " though He bear them long in 



238 THE UNJUST JUDGE. 

hand ? " or, " though He delay with, them long ? " that 
is, long, as men count length. In fact " He will avenge 
them speedily" delivering them from the furnace of 
affliction the instant that patience has had its perfect 
work ; so that there is meant to be an apparent con- 
tradiction between ver. 7 and that which follows, 
while there really is none. The relief which to man's 
impatience seems to tarry long, in fact arrives speed- 
ily ; it could not, according to the far-seeing and lov- 
ing counsels of God, have arrived a moment earlier. 
We find practical illustrations of these words in our 
Lord's conduct with the family of Bethany (John xi. 
and see also Matt. xiv. 24, 25). The point of the 
closing words, " Nevertheless, when the Son of man 
cometh, shall He find faith on the earth f " is not that 
there will be at the last but few, if any, faithful ; but 
that the faith even of the* faithful will be almost 
failing, so urgent will be the distress when He shall 
appear for salvation and deliverance. All help will 
seem utterly to have failed, so that the Son of man 
will hardly find that faith which believes that light 
will break forth even when the darkness is thickest, 
and believing this, continues to pray. The verse 
stands parallel to, and may be explained by, those 
other words of our Lord : " For the elect's sake," lest 
their faith also should fail, and so no flesh be saved, 
" those days shall be shortened " (Matt. xxiv. 22). 



XXIX. 

THE PHAEISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 

Luke xviii. 9-14. 

The last parable was to teach us that prayer must 
be earnest and persevering ; this, that it must also 
be humble. It was spoken " unto certain which 
trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and 
despised others" 

" Two men went up into the temple to pray" we 
are to suppose at one of the fixed hours of devotion, 
(Acts iii. 1) ; — the Pharisee, a specimen of those, who, 
satisfying themselves with a certain external freedom 
from gross offences, have remained ignorant of the 
plague of their own hearts ; the Publican, the repre- 
sentative of all who, though they have grievously 
transgressed, are now heartily mourning for their sins, 
and yearning after one who shall deliver them from 
these, and from their penalty. To pray standing was 



THE PHARISEE A^D THE PUBLICAN. 

manner of the Jews (1 Kin. viii i y 2 : 2 Cliron. vi. 
12 : Matt vi. 5) ; though in mome a more than 

ordinary humiliation, they prostrated themselves i Dan. 
vi. 1 I hion- vi. 13 : Acts xxL 

The Pharisee's prayer .: first seems to promise 
well — •* God) I than}: thee" jet its early promise 
quickly disappears ; tinder pretended thankful; 
self-exaltation is thinly veiled. He thanks God, in- 
deed, but not aright ; for the right recognition of 
God's grace will always be accompanied with deep 
self-abasement, while we confess our infinite shortcom- 
ings with such help at command ; and moreover we 
shall thank Him as much for the sense of need which 
He has awakened within us. as for the supplies of grace 
which he has given us. But this Pharisee thanks God 
that He is u ' dividing the whole of 

mankind into two classes, he in the one class, all the 
world besides in the other. And as he can think noth- 
ing too good of himself, so nothing too bad of them ; 
they are "extort /^. v And then 

his eye alighting on the publican, of whom he may 
have known nothing except that he was a publican, he 
drags him into his prayer. Zife, thank God, has no 
need to beat his breast, noi :; ;:.=: his eyes in shame 
upon the ground. 

is he in regard to the commands of the 

>nd table. He now returns to the first. fc * I J 






THE PHAEISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 241 

twice in the week." According to the law of Moses, 
but one fast-day in the year was appointed, the great 
day of atonement (Lev. xvi. 29), but the more religious 
Jews, and especially the Pharisees, kept two fasts 
weekly. Thus does he ; nor is this all : " I give tithes 
of all that I possess" (rather of all that I earn). 
The law commanded only to tithe the fruit of the 
field and produce of the cattle (Num. xviii. 21 ; 
Deut. xiv. 22 ; Lev. xxvii. 30), but he tithed mint and 
cummin (Matt, xxiii. 23), — all. He would, therefore, 
in both respects, lay claim to doing more than might 
strictly be demanded of him ; he would bring in God 
as his debtor. Acknowledgment of wants or confes- 
sion of sins, there is none in his prayer, if prayer it 
can be called. Augustine — " Thou hast said that thou 
hast all, thou hast asked for nothing ; — in what respect, 
then, hast thou come to pray ? " 

It aggravates our sense of the moral outrage in- 
volved in the Pharisee's contemptuous allusion to his 
fellow-worshipper, if we keep in mind that in this last 
we are to see one who at this very moment was passing 
into the kingdom of God, one in whom under sore 
pangs the new man was being born. For " the pub- 
lican standing afar off, would not lift up so much as 
his eyes unto heaven" to the dwelling of the Holy One 
(Ezra ix. 6). He stood " afar off" not but that he 

had a full right to approach, for undoubtedly he also 
11 



242 THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 

was a Jew ; but in reverent awe, not presuming to 
press nearer to the holy place. Moreover, he " smote 
upon his breast" a sign of self-accusation, or inward 
grief, at the same time " saying, God be merciful to 
me a sinner" or " to me the sinful one." The selection 
of the word here rendered " be merciful," is very ob- 
servable, for it implies not reconciliation merely, but 
reconciliation affected through some gift, or sacrifice, 
or offering. And as the other had singled himself out 
as the one holy one in the world, so the publican 
singles himself out as the chief of sinners — the man 
in whom all sins have met. Who at that moment 
when he is first truly convinced of his sins, thinks any 
other man's sins can be equal to his own ? 

And he found the mercy which he asked ; his 
prayer ascended, a sacrifice of sweet savor, while the 
prayer of the other was blown back like smoke into 
his own eyes ; " 1 tell you this man went down to his 
house justified rather than the other" Not merely 
was he justified in the secret counsels of God, but 
a sweet sense of a received forgiveness was shed 
abroad upon his heart. The other meanwhile went 
down from the temple with the same cold, dead heart, 
with which he had gone up. Christ does not mean 
that one by comparison with the other was justified, 
for there are no degrees in justification, but that the 
one absolutely was justified, and the other was not ; 



THE PHARISEE AND THE PUBLICAN. 243 

so that here the words recorded in Ps. cxxxviii. 6 ; 
Isai. lvii, 15, have their fulfilment. 

The whole parable fitly concludes with that weighty 
saying, " For every one that exalteth himself shall he 
abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalt- 
ed." 



XXX. 

THE POUNDS. 
Luke xix. 11-27. 

Most of what might be said upon this parable has 
been anticipated in that of the Talents. Each bears 
the most decisive marks of its adaptation to the peculiar 
circumstances under "which each was spoken. " He 
added and spake a parable, because he was nigh to 
Jerusalem, and because they thought that the kingdom 
of God should immediately appear" It was uttered, 
then, to teach the need of a patient waiting for Christ 
by His disciples ; and not merely that, but also of an 
active working for Him during His absence. But He 
had also other hearers on this His last journey to Jeru- 
salem- — a multitude drawn together by curiosity, and 
by other mingled motives. These were liable to be 
drawn presently into the mighty stream of hostility 
which was running against Him. For them is meant 
that part of the parable recorded in ver. 14-27. 

In the great Roman empire, such a circumstance 



THE POUNDS. 24:5 

as that which serves for the groundwork of this para- 
ble can have been of no infrequent occurrence. That 
he who should thus seek and obtain a kingdom was a 
" nobleman" is only what we should expect. And 
this has its deeper significance, for who was of such 
noble birth as He who, even according to the flesh, 
came of earth's first blood— was the Son of Abraham, 
the Son of David ; who was, besides, the only-begot- 
ten Son of God ? 

This nobleman goes to receive, not a kingdom at a 
distance, but rather the investiture of that kingdom 
whereof he has hitherto been only one of the more 
illustrious citizens. This is implied by the message 
of his fellow-citizens, " We will not have this man to 
reign over us" And Christ went, not only to be en- 
throned in His heavenly state, but also to receive 
solemn investiture of that earthly kingdom which 
hereafter He shall, returning, claim as His own. 

Before he went, however, " he called his ten ser- 
vants" or rather ten servants of his, " and delivered 
them ten pounds y and said unto them, Occupy till I 
come" A pound (mina) is equal to £4 Is. 3d. In 
St. Matthew, talents (a talent=£243 15s.) were given, 
for that parable was to the apostles. How remarkable 
are these occupations of peace in which they should 
be engaged, and that too, while a rebellion was going 
on. Men, feeling strongly, have supposed that the 



246 THE POUNDS. 

kingdom of God was immediately to appear (ver. 11), 
and that they, and not Christ Himself, were to bring 
it into its outward form and subsistence — instead of 
seeing that their part was, with the silent occupation 
of their talent, to prepare the world for the coming 
of that kingdom, which should take place on the re- 
turn of the King in His glory. 

The Jews were especially Christ's fellow-" citi- 
zens" for, according to the flesh, He was of the seed 
of Abraham ; and they hated Him not merely in His 
life, but every persecution of His servants was a mes- 
sage of defiance sent after Him, " We will not have 
this man to reign over us" And Theophylact well 
observes, how twice this very declaration found formal 
utterance from their lips — once when they cried to 
Pilate, " We have no king but Caesar ; " and again 
when they said, " Write not, the King of the Jews." 
If we find the full accomplishment of all which this 
parable contains, not at the destruction of Jerusalem, 
but at the day of judgment, then these rebellious citi- 
zens will be not merely the Jews, but all such evil 
men as by word or deed openly deny their relation 
and subjection to Jesus, as their Lord and King, and 
their message will have its entire fulfilment in the 
great apostacy of the last days, which shall be a 
speaking of great things against Him. (Eev. xiii. 5, 
6 ; Dan. vii. 25.) 



THE POUNDS. 247 

On the following verses (15 — 23) there is little to 
say which has not been said elsewhere. The rewards 
which the nobleman imparts to his faithful servants 
are royal : he sets them over cities. This method of 
showing grace to servants was not uncommon in the 
East. The rewards, too, are proportioned to their 
fidelity. Those who stand by, and are bidden to take 
the pound from the slothful servant, and give it to the 
ablest, are clearly the angels, who never fail to take 
an active part in all scenes descriptive of the final 
judgment. 

"When the king has thus distributed rewards and 
penalties to those of his own household — for the 
Church is the household of God — he proceeds to exe- 
cute vengeance on all who had openly cast off alle- 
giance to him (Prov. xx. 8). They are slain before his 
face ; as their guilt was greater, so their punishment 
is more terrible, than that of the slothful servant. 
The slaying of the king's enemies in his presence be- 
longs to the innermost kernel of the parable. The 
words set forth fearfully the unmitigated wrath of the 
Lord Jesus against His enemies — His enemies only as 
they are the enemies of all righteousness — which 
shall be revealed at the last (Rev. xiv. 10). We 
may compare Heb. i. 13, and we can learn from 
Josh. x. 24, what the image is, that underlies that 
passage. 



APPENDIX. 



ON OTHER PARABLES BESIDES THOSE IN THE 
SCRIPTURES. 

It has been denied by some, but against all testimony, that 
the method of teaching by parables was current among the Jews 
before our Saviour's time. To this they had been mainly led by 
the fear lest it should detract from His glory, to suppose that He 
had availed Himself of a manner of teaching already in use. But 
if Christianity is indeed the world-religion, it must gather into 
one all dispersed rays of light ; it must appropriate to itself all 
elements of truth which are anywhere scattered abroad, claiming 
thus its own. Our blessed Lord so spake, as that His doctrine, 
according to its outward form, should commend itself to His 
countrymen. Thus He appealed to proverbs in common use 
among them. He used the terms which they had employed, 
but all His words being creative, He breathed into them also a 
new spirit of life. The prayer, " Thy kingdom come," formed 
already a part of the Jewish liturgy, yet not the less was it a 
new prayer on the lips of all who had realized in any measure 
the idea of the kingdom, and what was signified by the coming 
of that kingdom, as He first had enabled them to realize it. In 
like manner it is not to be doubted that a proselyte was in the 
Jewish schools entitled " a new creature," and his passing over 
to Judaism was called " a new birth ; " yet these terms were 
11* 



250 APPENDIX. 

probably used to express a change only inliis outward relations 
— that his kinsmen were his no more ; it remained for Christ 
and His apostles to appropriate them to the higher mysteries of 
the kingdom of heaven. 

It is also certain that the use of parables or briefer compari- 
sons to illustrate doctrines, was eminently in use among the Jew- 
ish teachers. Hillel and Schammai were the most illustrious 
teachers by parables before the time of our Saviour ; K. Meir 
immediately after. With this last, as tradition goes, the power 
of inventing parables notably declined. I will quote some of 
-the best Jewish parables which I have met with. The following 
is occasioned by a question which has arisen, namely, "Why the 
good so often die young ? It is answered, that God foresees that 
if they lived they would fall into sin. " To what is this like ? 
It is like a king who, walking in his garden, saw some roses 
which were yet buds, breathing an ineffable sweetness. He 
thought, If these shed such sweetness while yet they are buds, 
what will they do when they are fully blown ? After a while, 
the king entered the garden anew, thinking to find the roses now 
blown, and to delight himself with their fragrance ; but arriving 
at the place, he found them pale and withered, and yielding no 
smell. He exclaimed with regret, Had I gathered them while 
yet tender and young, and while they gave forth their sweetness, 
I might have delighted myself with them, but now I have no 
pleasure in them. The next year the king walked in his garden, 
and finding rosebuds scattering fragrance, he commanded his 
servants, Gather them, that I may enjoy them before they 
wither, as last year they did." The next is ingenious enough, 
though a notable specimen of Jewish self -righteousness : — " A 
man had three friends : being summoned to appear before the 
king, he was terrified, and looked for an advocate ; the first, 
whom he had accounted the best, altogether refused to go with 
him ; another replied that he would accompany him to the door 
of the palace, but could not speak for him ; the third, whom he 
had held in least esteem, appeared with him before the king, 
and pleaded for him so well as to procure his deliverance. So 
every man has three friends, when summoned by death before 






APPENDIX. 251 

God, his Judge : the first, whom he most prized, his money, will 
not go with him a step ; the second, his friends and kinsmen, 
accompany him to the tomb, but no further, nor can they deliver 
him in the judgment ; while the third, whom he held in least 
esteem, the Law and good works, appear with him before the 
King, and deliver him from condemnation." How different is 
this view of the Law as an advocate with the Judge, from that 
given by our Lord (Matt. v. 25, 26), who compares it to an adver- 
sary dragging us before a tribunal where we are certain to be 
worsted ! 

There is a fine one of the fox, who seeing the fish in great 
trouble, darting hither and thither, while the stream was being 
drawn with nets, proposed to them to leap on dry land. This is 
put in a Rabbi's mouth, who, when the Graeco-Syrian kings 
were threatening with death all who observed the law, was 
counselled by his friends to abandon it. There are besides these, 
a multitude of briefer ones, deserving the title of similitudes 
rather than of parables. Thus, the death common to all, and 
the doom after death so different to each, is likened to a king's 
retinue entering a city at a single gate, but afterward lodged 
within it very differently, according to their several dignity. 
In another it is shown how body and soul are partners in sin, 
and so will justly be partners in punishment. Thus : A mortal 
king assigned to an excellent garden in which were ripe fruits, 
two keepers, a lame man, and a blind man. The lame man 
seeing the fruit, persuaded the blind man to take him on his 
shoulders, so that he might pluck, and they both might eat, &c. 

The resemblance which is seen between some of the Jewish 
parables and those related by our Lord, is merely such as must 
needs have found place, when the same external life, and the 
same outward nature, were used as the common storehouse from 
whence images and examples were drawn alike by all. The 
following is one of the best of those which pretend to any simi- 
larity with His, and has been sometimes likened to that part of 
the Marriage of the King's Son which relates to the wedding 
garment. u The Rabbis have delivered what follows, on Eccl. 
xii. 7, where it is written, ' The spirit shall return unto God 



252 APPEKDIX. 

who gave it.' He gave it to thee unspotted, see that thou re- 
store it unspotted to Him again. It is like a mortal king, who 
distributed royal vestments to his servants. Then those that 
were wise, folded them carefully up, and laid them by in the 
wardrobe ; but those that were foolish went their way, and, 
clothed in these garments, engaged in their ordinary work. 
After a while the king required his garments again ; the wise 
returned them white as they had received them ; but the foolish, 
soiled and stained. Then the king was well pleased with the 
wise, and said, Let the vestments be laid up in the wardrobe, 
and let these depart in peace ; but he was angry with the foolish, 
and said, Let the vestments be given to be washed, and those 
servants be cast into prison : — so will the Lord do with the 
bodies of the righteous, as it is written, Isa. lvii. 2 ; with their 
souls, 1 Sam. xxv. 29 ; but with the bodies of the wicked, Isa. 
xlviii. 22, lvii. 21 ; and with their souls, 1 Sam. xxv. 29." But 
how slight the resemblance I 

Thus much in regard of the Jewish parables. Among the 
Fathers of the Christian Church, there are not many, as far as 
I am aware, who have professedly constructed parables for the 
setting forth of spiritual mysteries. Eadmer, a disciple of An- 
selm, has preserved a sort of basket of fragments from his ser- 
mons and his table-talk. Far better are those interspersed 
through the Greek religious romance of the seventh or eight 
century, Barlaam and Josaphat, ascribed, though I believe 
without sufficient grounds, to St. John of Damascus, and often 
printed with his works. Those which are entitled parables in 
the writings of St Bernard, although containing much of beauty 
and instruction, are rather allegories than parables. But if para- 
bles, professedly such, are not of frequent occurrence in the 
early Church writers, the parabolical element is, notwithstand- 
ing, very prominent in their teaching. For instance, in the writ- 
ings of St. Augustine, one is only perplexed amid the endless 
variety what instances to select : but we may take this one a& 
an example. He is speaking of the Son of God and the sinner 
in the same world, and appearing under the same conditions of 
humanity, " But y " he proceeds, " how great a difference there- 







APPENDIX. 253 

is between the prisoner in his dungeon and the visitor that has 
come to see him. They are both within the walls of the dun- 
geon : one who did not know might suppose them under equal 
restraint, but one is the compassionate visitor who can use his 
freedom when he will, the other is fast bound there for his 
offences. So great is the difference between Christ, the com- 
passionate visitor of man, and man himself, the criminal in 
bondage for his offences." Chrysostom, too, is very rich in such 
similitudes ; as for instance, when speaking of the exaltation of 
outward nature, the redemption of the creature which shall 
accompany the manifestation of the sOns of God, he says, " To 
what is the creation like ? It is like a nurse that has brought up 
a royal child, and when he ascends his paternal throne, she too 
rejoices with him, and is partaker of the benefit." But the field 
here opening before us, is too wide to enter on. I will not deny 
myself the pleasure, however, of transcribing the following para- 
ble from H. de Sto. Yictore. " A certain father drove out his 
rebellious son with much seeming rage, that he might thus learn 
humility. But persisting in his obstinacy, his mother, according 
to a secret plan, is sent by the father, that, not as if sent thus, 
but as if led by her own affection, she may soothe him by her 
gentleness, incline him to humility, declare that his father is 
greatly angered, yet promise to intercede, say that his father 
cannot be appeased except by great entreaties, but engage to 
undertake his cause herself, and to bring the affair to a happy 
termination." The mother, here, he presently explains as divine 
Grace. 

One Persian parable, too, I will quote for its deep significance. 
" Mankind cannot be better compared than to a man who, flee- 
ing from an enraged elephant, goes down into a well; he is 
caught on two boughs which cover its mouth, and his feet are 
placed upon something which projects from the interior of the well 
— it is four serpents, who put their heads out of their dens ; he 
perceives at the bottom of the well a dragon, which, with open 
maw, awaits only the moment of his fall to devour him. His 
attention is turned to the two boughs, from which he is sus- 
pended, and he sees at their starting-point two rats, the one 



254 APPENDIX. 

black, the other white, which cease not to gnaw them. Another 
object, however, presents itself to his notice ; it is a beehive 
filled with bees : he applies himself to eating of their honey, and 
the pleasure he finds in it causes him to forget the serpents on 
which rest his feet, the rats which gnaw the branches, and the 
danger which every moment threatens him of becoming the 
prey of the dragon. His folly and delusion cease only with his 
life. This well — 'tis the world filled with perils and miseries ; 
the four serpents are the four humors whose mixture forms our 
body, but which, when their equilibrium is destroyed, become so 
many fatal poisons ; the two rats, black and white, are day and 
night, whose succession consumes our life ; the dragon is the in- 
evitable limit which awaits us all ; the honey, finally, is those 
pleasures whose false sweetness allures and misleads us." 






NOTES. 

Page 7. — " A parable ; " from the Greek parabole, which is 
from a verb signifying to put forth one tMng before or oeside 
another ; and it is assumed, when paraoole is used for parable, 
though not necessarily included in the word, that the purpose 
for which they are set side by side is that they may be compared 
one with the other. 

Jerome finely calls a parable " a shadow, as it were, of truth, 
cast before." 

Page 8. — " In this raillery the fabulist frequently indulges," 
as in La Fontaine's celebrated fable of The Ant and the Grass- 
hopper, in which the ant, in reply to the petition of the grass- 
hopper which is starving in the winter, reminds it how it sung 
all the summer. 

Page 12. — " The fearful curse of sin," &c. 

" For when we in our viciousness grow hard, 
Oh misery on't, the wise gods seal our eyes, 
In our own filth drop our clear judgments, make us 
Adore our errors, laugh at us, while we strut 
To our confusion ! " Shakspeare. 

Page 13. — " The things on earth are copies of the things in 

heaven." 

" What if earth 
Be but the shadow of heaven, and things therein 
Each to other like, more than on earth is thought." 

Milton. 

Out of a true sense of the intimate connection between the 



256 notes. 

type and the thing typified, has grown our use of the word likely* 
Butler's Analogy is just the unfolding, in one particular line, of 
this thought, that the like is also the likely. 

Page 18. — " The parabolical element of teaching." There is 
a natural delight in this, which has impressed itself upon our lan- 
guage. To like a thing is to compare it to some other thing, 
from which process arises a pleasurable emotion. That we like 
what is like, is the explanation of the pleasure which rhymes 
give us. 

Page 26. — The Gnostics. Irenseus likens their dealings with 
Scripture to their fraud who should break up some work of ex- 
quisite mosaic, bearing the likeness of a king, and then so re- 
compose the pieces as to express the image of a dog or fox, hop- 
ing that, since they could point to the stones as the same, they 
should be able to persuade the simple that this was the king's 
likeness still. The miracles were submitted by them to the same 
process of interpretation. 

Page 27. — The Cathari and Bogomili. They made the ser- 
vant that owed the ten thousand talents to be Satan, the ser- 
vant's wife his intelligence, the children the angels subject to 
him. God pitied him, and did not take from him his higher in- 
telligence, his subjects or his goods ; he promising, if God would 
be patient with him, to create men enough to fill the fallen 
angels' place. 

Page 30. — The sea of Galilee. The Jewish writers would 
have it that it was beloved by God above all the waters of 
Canaan ; and because of the beauty and rich fertility of its banks, 
its name Genesareth has been sometimes derived, which some 
interpret " the garden of riches," though the derivation, I be- 
lieve, is insecure. Josephus rises into high poetical animation 
while he is describing its attractions. Kobinson (Bibl. Re- 
searches) gives a far less enthusiastic account ; when he visited 
it, the verdure of the spring had disappeared. 



NOTES. 257 

" A sower went forth to sow." As it belongs to the essen- 
tially popular nature of the Gospels that parables should be found 
in them rather than in the Epistles, where indeed they never 
appear, so it belongs to the popular character of the parable that 
it should thus rest upon the familiar doings of common life ; 
while at the same time the Lord, using these to set forth eternal 
and spiritual truths, ennobles them, showing, as He does, how 
they continually reveal the deepest mysteries of His kingdom. 
What a dignity and significance have these few words (" a sower 
went forth to sow") given in all after times to the toils of the 
husbandman. 

Shakspeare, of a man of thoughtful wisdom : — 

" His plausive words 
He scattered not in ears, but gratfed them 
To grow there and to bear." 

Salmeron, very beautifully : ' As Christ is Physician and 
medicine, Priest and victim, Eedeemer and redemption, Law- 
maker and law, Doorkeeper and door, so Sower and seed. For 
the Gospel itself is nothing else than Christ incarnate, born, 
preaching, dying, rising, sending the Holy Spirit, collecting the 
Church, and sanctifying and guiding it.' 

Page 31. — " Hard as a pavement." H. de Sto. Victore : ' The 
u way " is the heart worn down and made barren by the con- 
stant passage of evil thoughts.' 

Page 32. — "When the sun was up," <&c. Generally the light 
and warmth of the sun set forth the genial and comfortable 
workings of God's grace, as eminently Mai. iv. 2; but not 
always, for see, besides the passage before us, Ps. cxxi. 6 ; Isa. 
xlix. 10 ; Kev. vii. 16. Bede : ' Those are hearts which, for the 
hour, are delighted with the sweetness only of the discourse 
they have heard, and with its heavenly promises.' 

" Tribulation." This word rests upon the idea of sifting — 
tribulatio from tribulum, the threshing-roller, and thus used to 
signify those afflictive processes by which in the moral discipline 



258 NOTES. 

of men, God separates their good from their evil, their wheat 
from their chaff. 

" Boot in himself" With allusion to this passage, the Greek 
Fathers call men of faith deep-rooted, and many-rooted. 

Page 33. — " Choked it." The image of an evil growth strang- 
ling a nobler is permanently embodied in our language in cockle, 
a well known weed, a word derived from the Anglo-Saxon, ceo- 
can, to choke. 

It is evident that, in the great symbolic language of the out- 
ward world, " thorns " have a peculiar fitness to express in- 
fluences hostile to the truth, themselves the consequences and 
evidences of sin, of a curse which has passed on from man to 
earth (Gen. iii. 17, 18), till that earth had none other but a thorn- 
crown to yield to its Lord. 

Page 33. — It may seem strange at first sight that cares and 
pleasures, which appear so opposite to one another, should here be 
linked together, and have the same evil consequences attributed 
to them ; but the Lord does in fact here present earthly life on 
its two sides — its crushing, oppressive side, the poor man's toil 
how to live at all, and its flattering side. 

Page 34. — How can any heart be called " good" before the 
Lord and the Spirit have made it so ? Augustine asks : ' What 
is this ? whose were the good works ? ' and answers : ' The be- 
ginning of good works is the confession of evil works. Thou 
doest truth, how ? thou dost not flatter thyself, dost not say, I 
am righteous, when thou art wicked ; and thou beginnest to do 
truth.' — As our Saviour in this parable, so the Jewish doctors divide 
hearers of the words of wisdom into four classes. The best 
they liken to a sponge, that drinks in all it receives, and again 
expresses it to others ; the worst to a strainer, that retains only 
the dregs, or to a sieve, that retains only the bran. 

Page 36. — " The Son of man." Our Lord was often under- 
stood, in the early Church and among the Keformers, by this 



NOTES. 259 

title to signify nothing more than His participation in the human 
nature ; while others have said that He assumed the name as 
the one by which the hoped-for Messiah was already commonly 
known among the people. But it is clear that, on the contrary, 
the name was a strange one to them ; compare John xii. 34. 
The popular name for the Messiah, when Christ came, was, Son 
of David. (Matt. ix. 27; xii. 23; xv. 22; xx. 31, &o.) ISTo 
doubt He claimed the title (already given Him in the Old Test. 
Dan. vii. 13), inasmuch as it was He who alone realized the idea 
of man, the one true and perfect flower which had ever unfolded 
itself out of the root and stalk of humanity. 

" The field is the world." Words few and slight, a great 
battle has been fought over them, greater perhaps than over any 
single phrase in the Scripture, if we except the consecrating 
words at the Eucharist. Aside from the merely personal ques- 
tion concerning the irregularity of certain ordinations, the 
grounds on which the Donatists justified their separation from 
the Church Catholic were these : The idea of the Church, they 
said, is that of a perfectly holy body ; holiness is not merely one 
of its essential predicates, but the essential, to which all others 
must be subordinated. They did not deny that it was possible 
that hypocrites might be concealed in its bosom, but where the 
evidently ungodly were suffered to remain in communion with 
it, not separated off by the exercise of discipline,' then it forfeited 
the character of the true Church, and the faithful were to come 
out from it ; else, they would themselves be defiled. In support 
of this view, they maintained that such passages as Isa. lii. 1, 
and all others which spoke of the future freedom of the Church 
from evil, were meant to be applicable to it in its present con- 
dition, and consequently, where they were not applicable, there 
could not be the Church. Here, as on so many other points, the 
Church owes to Augustine, not the forming of her doctrine, for 
that she owes to no man, but the bringing out into her clear 
consciousness that which hitherto she had indeed possessed, yet 
had not worked out into a perfect clearness, even for herself. 
By him she replied, not in any way gainsaying the truth which 
the Donatists proclaimed, that holiness must be an essential pre- 



260 NOTES. 

dicate of the Church, but only refusing to accept their idea of 
that holiness, and showing how in the Church, which they had 
forsaken, this quality was to be found, and combined with other 
as essential qualities. 

The Church Catholic, he affirmed, despite all appearances to 
the contrary, is a holy body, for they only are its members who 
are in true and living fellowship with Christ, therefore partakers 
of His sanctifying Spirit. All others, however they may have 
the outward notes of belonging to it, are in it, but not of it ; 
they press upon Christ, like the thronging multitude, they do not 
touch Him, like the believing woman (Luke viii. 45). There are 
certain outward conditions, without which one cannot pertain 
to His Church, but with which one does not necessarily do so. 
And they who are thus in it, but not of it, whether hypocrites 
lying hid, or open offenders, who, from their numbers, may not 
without greater evils be expelled, do not defile the true members 
so long as these share not in their spirit, nor communicate with 
their evil deeds. 

The Donatists wished to make the Church in its visible form 
and historic manifestation identical and co -extensive with the 
true Church which the Lord knoweth, and not man. Augustine 
also affirmed the identity of the Church now existing with the 
final and glorious Church ; but he denied that they were co- 
extensive. He laid especial stress upon the fact that the Lord 
Himself had not contemplated His Church in its present state as 
perfectly free from evil. In proof, he appealed to this parable 
and that of the Draw-net, and not merely as stating historic fact 
— he urged also that all attempts to have it otherwise are here 
expressly forbidden. 

We shall see hereafter how the Donatists sought to escape 
the argument drawn from the other parable. To this, they 
made answer : — " By the Lord's own showing, ' the field ' is not 
the Church, but the world. The parable, therefore, does not 
bear on the dispute betwixt us and you in the least.' 7 But 
it must be evident to every one not warped by a dogmatic 
interest, that the parable is, as the Lord announces at its first 
utterance, concerning the kingdom of heaven, or the Church. 



NOTES. 261 

(Calvin : ' Although Christ adds that the field is the world, yet 
it is not doubtful that He wished to apply this name to the 
Church in particular, concerning which He had begun His dis- 
course. But since He was about to draw His plough promiscu- 
ously through all regions of the world, so that He might culti- 
vate for Himself fields everywhere, and scatter the seed of life, 
He transferred hy synecdoche to the world what fitted a part 
only.') It required no especial teaching to acquaint the dis- 
ciples that in the world there would ever be a mixture of good 
and bad, though they must have been so little prepared to ex- 
pect the same in the Church, that it was very needful to warn 
them beforehand, both that they might not be stumbled, and 
that they might know how to conduct themselves. 

" Let ooth grow together until the harvest" The visible 
Church is to have its intermixture of good and bad until the end 
of time, and by consequence the fact of the bad being found 
mingled with the good will in no wise justify a separation from 
it, or an attempt to set up a little Church of our own. Where 
men will attempt this, besides the guilt of transgressing a plain 
command, it is not difficult to see what fatal effects on their own 
spiritual life it must have, what darkness it must bring upon 
them, and into what a snare of pride it must cast them. Thus 
Augustine often appeals to the fact that the Donatists had not suc- 
ceeded, that they themselves would not dare to assert that they 
had succeeded, in forming what should even externally appear a 
pure communion; and since by their own acknowledgment 
there might be, and probably were, hypocrites and concealed 
ungodly among themselves, this was enough to render all such 
passages as Isa. lii. 1, as inapplicable to them as to the Church 
in its present condition. 

Every young Christian in the time of his first zeal is tempted 
to be somewhat of a Donatist in spirit. Nay, it would argue 
little love or holy earnestness in him, if he had not this longing 
to see the Church of his Saviour a glorious Church without spot 
or wrinkle. But he must learn that the desire, righteous and 
holy as in itself it is, yet it is not to find its fulfilment in this 
present evil time ; that on the contrary, the suffering from false 



262 NOTES. 

brethren is one of the pressures upon him, which is meant to 
wring out from him a more earnest prayer that the Kingdom of 
God may appear. 

Calvin's words are excellent : c There is this dangerous 
temptation, to think that there is no Church where complete 
purity may not appear. For whosoever may be carried away 
with this, it will at last be inevitable, that having separated from 
everybody else, he shall seem to himself the only holy person 
in the world, or in company with a few hypocrites set up a sect 
of his own. "Why then did Paul recognize the Church of God 
in Corinth? Because he saw among them, Gospel-doctrine, 
Baptism, the Lord's Supper, by which marks merely a Church 
should be judged.' 

Page 38. — Evil, not a generation, but a degeneration; as 
Augustine often expresses it, it has not an efficient but only a de- 
ficient cause. 

Page 40. — " The harvest" Bishop Horsley distinguishes be- 
tween the vintage and the harvest, which are the two images 
under which the consummation is so commonly represented. 
" The vintage is always an image of the season of judgment, but 
the harvest of the ingathering of the objects of God's final mercy. 
I am not aware that a single unexceptionable instance is to be 
found, in which the harvest is a type of judgment. In Kev. xiv. 
15, 16, the sickle is thrust into the ripe harvest, and the earth 
is reaped, i. e., the elect are gathered from the four winds of 
heaven. After this reaping of the earth the sickle is applied to 
the clusters of the vine, and they are cast into the great wine- 
press of the wrath of God (ver. 18-20). In Joel iii. 13, the ripe 
harvest is the harvest of the vine, i. e., the grapes fit for gather- 
ing, as appears by the context. In Jer. li. 33, the act of thresh- 
ing out the harvest is the image of judgment. It is true the 
burning of the tares in Matt. xiii. is a work of judgment ; but it 
is an accidental adjunct of the business, not the harvest itself." 
It may be a question whether the manner in which he makes 
our parable fit into his scheme is quite satisfactory. 






NOTES. 263 

Page 41. — " Then shall the righteous shine forth" Full 
force is to be given to "forth." Calvin : a It is a very great 
comfort that the sons of God, who now are either lying covered 
with squalor, or are hidden and nnesteemed, or are even buried 
under reproaches, shall then, as in a clear sky and with every 
cloud dissipated, at once shine out brightly." Using a different 
image, Augustine says of the Christian as he is now — c His glory 
is hidden ; when the Lord shall have come, then will it appear. 
For he flourishes, but as yet in winter ; the root flourishes, but 
the branches are as if withered. "Within is the pith which is 
flourishing, within are leaves, within is fruit ; but they await 
the summer.' 

Page 47. — "There is no need, then," &c. The devil is "a 
roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour " (1 Pet. v. 8), yet 
this does not hinder the same title from being applied to Christ, 
" the lion of the tribe of Judah " (Rev. v. 5). Nor is it to be 
forgotten that if, on one side, the effects of leaven on meal 
present an analogy to something evil in the spiritual world, they 
do also, on the other, to something good, as it is universally 
agreed that its effects on bread are to render it more tasteful, 
. lighter, and more nourishing, and generally more wholesome. 

Is it only a part of the suitable machinery of the parable, 
that the act of kneading being proper to women, it is " a woman " 
here who takes the leaven and puts it in the meal ? or may we 
look for something more ? Luke xv. 8 may suggest that the 
Holy Spirit is here meant. If it be asked, why as a woman ? it 
may be replied, that the Spirit's organ is the Church. Again, 
why three measures of meal ? Perhaps, because that was a common 
amount to mix at one time (Gen. xviii. 6). Yet it may be that 
it means something more. Some perceive in it allusion to the 
spread of the Gospel through the three parts of the then known 
world ; some, like Jerome and Ambrose, find in it a pledge of the 
sanctification of body, soul, and spirit. 

" A new power brought from above." Augustine, in whose 
time the fading away of all the glory of the ancient world was 
daily becoming more apparent, loved to contemplate the coming 



261 XOTES. 

of Christ as a new and quickening power cast into the midst of 
an old and dying world, by the help of which the world might 
renew its youth. 

Page 51.— " Some draw a distinction between the field and 
the treasure ; makiug the first to be the Scriptures, the second 
the knowledge of Christ : " so Augustine and Jerome. 

Page 52.— " Selleth all that he hath, and ouyeth this field?' 
The Lord is in fact exhorting to this in Matt. x. 37-39. And 
yet it is not merely a command. The dead leaves easily and as 
of themselves fall off from the tree, when propelled by the new 
blossoms and buds which are forcing their way from behind. 

' ; Some have found a difficulty,'' &c. In books of casuistry, 
where they treat of the question how far and when a finder has 
a right to appropriate things found, this parable is frequently 
adduced. Apollonius of Tyana, being called in to decide a quar- 
rel between the buyer and seller of such a field, adjudged it 
to whichever of the parties should be found, on scrutiny, to have 
lived the holiest life. 

Page 56. — " The great Eureka breaks forth from his lips." 
Augustine : ' Lord, Thou hast made us for Thee, and our heart 
is disquieted till it reacheth to Thee.' 

Page 57. — Much of what has been already said in considering 
the Tares (see notes in this Appendix) will apply here. The 
same use has been made of either parable ; there is the same 
continual appeal to this as to that in the Donatist controversy, 
and this conveys to all ages the same instruction as that. The 
minutes of the conference at Carthage show how the Donatists 
sought to evade the force of the arguments drawn from this 
parable. They did not deny that Christ spoke, in this parable, 
of sinners being found mingled with the righteous in the Church, 
yet it was only concealed sinners, ' since the fishermen do not know 
what is in the net, placed as it is in the sea, until it is brought to 
the shore ' ; taking refuge in an accidental circumstance in the 



NOTES. 265 

parable, viz., that so long as the nets are under water their con- 
tents cannot be seen. 

Page 59. — " The angels shall come forth.' 1 '' Everywhere in 
the Scripture we find the angels distinctly named as the execu- 
tioners of the final separation (Matt. xiii. 41 ; xxiv. 31 ; xxv. 31 ; 
Rev. xiv. 18, 19). Moreover, in each of the other parables of 
judgment, there is a marked distinction, which it is little likely 
should have been here renounced, between the present ministers 
of the kingdom and the future executors of doom — in the Tares, 
between the servants and the reapers, in the Marriage of the 
King's Son (Matt, xxii.) between the servants (douloi) and at- 
tendants (dialconoi), in the Pounds (Luke xix.) between the 
servants and those that stand by. 

Page 60. — " The seven parables related in this chapter," &c. 
The mystical number seven has offered to many interpreters a 
temptation too strong to be resisted for seeking in them some 
hidden mystery ; and when the seven petitions of the Lord's 
prayer, and the names of the seven original deacons (Acts vi. 5.) 
have been turned into prophecy of seven successive states of the 
Church, not to speak of the seven Apocalyptic Epistles (Rev. ii. 
iii.), it was scarcely to be expected that these seven parables should 
have escaped being made prophetic of the same. Bengel applies 
the first parable to the times of Christ and His Apostles — the 
original period of sowing ; the second (the Tares), to the age 
immediately following, when heresies began to abound ; the 
third (the Mustard Seed), to the time of Constantine, when the 
Church evidently gave support, and furnished protection to the 
great ones of earth ; the fourth (the Leaven), to the propagation 
of true religion through the whole world ; the Hid Treasure, to 
the more hidden state of the Church signified in Rev. xii. 6 ; the 
Pearl, to the time when the kingdom shall be esteemed above all 
things, Satan being bound ; while the Draw -Net details the 
ultimate confusion, separation, and judgment. 

Page 62. — There is nothing in the discourse going before, to 
lead immediately to Peter's question, to which this parable is an 
12 



266 KOTES. 

answer ; and ye* the words "Then came Peter," seem to make 
an unbroken connection. Perhaps it is thus : Peter must have 
felt in his Lord's injunctions concerning an offending brother 
(ver. 15-17), that the forgiveness of his fault was necessarily im- 
plied as having already taken place ; since, till we had forgiven, 
we could not be in the condition to deal with him thus, for this 
dealing, even to the exclusion of him from Church-fellowship, is 
entirely a dealing in love (2 Thes. iii. 14, 15), and with a view to 
his recovery. 

The command, in ver. 22, to forgive till seventy times seven, 
does not exclude a dealing, if need oe, of severity, provided 
always it be a dealing in loye. Our Lord's seventy times seven 
makes a wonderful contrast with Lamech's, the antediluvian 
Antichrist's, seventy and seven-fold of revenge (Gen. iv. 24). 

" Peter's consciousness of this new law of love," that it was 
a law larger, more long-suffering, than the old ; but there were 
yet deeper motives for his selection of the number seven. It is 
the number in the divine law with which the idea of remission 
was ever linked. The seven times seventh year was the year of 
jubilee (Lev. xxv. 28 ; comp. iv. 6, 17 ; xvi. 14, 15). Gregory of 
Nyssa suggests also the fact of the Sabbath being the seventh 
day. 

Page 63. — " Ten thousand talents." The sum here is im- 
mense, whatever talents we suppose these to have been, though 
it would differ very much in amount according to the talent 
which we assumed. According to Plutarch, it was exactly this 
sum of ten thousand talents wifch which Darius sought to buy off 
Alexander. We have some almost incredible notices of the 
quantities of gold in the East. Perchance the immensity of the 
sum may partly have moved Origen to his supposition, that it 
can only have been the Man of Sin that is here indicated, or 
stranger still, the Devil ! 

Page 64. — " A part of his property ; " so, according to Roman 
law. 



NOTES. 267 

Page 65.—" It is because we go out," &c. Theophylact : 4 For 
no one abiding in God is without sympathy.' 

" How little man can offend against his brother, compared," 
&c. The Hebrew talent — 300 shekels (Exod. xxxviii. 25, 26). 
Assuming this, the proportion of the two debts would be : 

10,000 talents : 100 pence : : 1,250,000 : 1, that is, one mil- 
lion two hundred and fifty thousand to one, 

Page 73. — " For we cannot imagine," &c. ; not even here in 
our present imperfect state, and much less in the perfected king- 
dom hereafter, for love "rejoices in the truth." Leighton: 
1 Envy is without the divine choir, but the most absolute char- 
ity, by which each one, at the same time with his own, enjoys 
likewise the happiness of another, and is blessed, rejoicing in 
that indeed as if it were his own ; whence there is amongst 
them a certain rebound and multiplication of blessedness ; such 
as would be the splendor of a hall glittering with gold and 
gems, with a full circle of kings and magnates, whose walls 
should be covered on every side with the most brilliant mir- 
rors.' 

Page 74. — " A penny a day ; " a denarius, a Eoman silver 
coin. It was equal to about 16 or 17 cts., at the latter end of 
the commonwealth ; afterwards, something less. It was not an 
uncommon, though a liberal day's pay. Morier mentions having 
noticed in the market-place at Hamadan (Persia) a custom like 
that alluded to in the parable : " Here we observed every morn- 
ing before the sun rose, that a numerous band of peasants were 
collected with spades in their hands, waiting to be hired for the 
day to work in the surrounding fields. This custom struck me 
as a most happy illustration of our Saviour's parable, particularly 
when, passing by the same place late in the day, we found 
others standing idle, and remembered His words, * Why stand 
ye here all the day idle ? ' as most applicable to their situation, 
for on putting the very same question to them they answered us, 
4 Because no man hath hired us.' " 



26S NOTES. 

Page 74. — "At nine," kc. These would not, except just at 
the equinoxes, be exactly the hours, for the Jews, as well as the 
Greeks and Pwomans, divided the natural day, that between sun- 
rise and sunset, into twelve equal parts (John xi. 9), which parts 
must of course have been considerably longer in summer than 
in winter. The longest day is a little more than fourteen hours, 
the shortest a little less than ten hours ; an hour on the longest 
day was exactly twenty-two minutes longer than an hour on the 
shortest. Probably the day was also divided into four larger 
parts here indicated. 

Page 75. — " Still one would not deny," &e. For in truth 
time belongs not to the kingdom of God. Not " How much 
hast thou done ? " but " TThat art thou now ? " will be the great 
question of the last day. Of course we must never forget that 
all which men have done will greatly affect what they are ; yet 
still the parable is a protest against the Poruanist's estimate of 
men's works, against all which would make the works the end, 
and man the means, instead of man the end, and the works the 
means — against that scheme which, however unconsciously, lies at 
the root of so many of the confusions in our theology at this day. 

This mechanical, as opposed to the dynamic idea of righteous- 
ness, is carried to the greatest perfection of all in the Chinese 
theology. Thus in that remarkable Lrcre des recompenses et des 
2)eines, the mechanic, or to speak more truly, the arithmetic idea 
of righteousness comes out with all possible distinctness ; for ex- 
ample : " To become immortal, one must have amassed three- 
thousand merits and eight hundred virtuous actions.' How 
glorious, on the other hand, are Thauler's words upon the way in 
which we may have restored to us " the years which the canker- 
worm has eaten*' (Joel ii. 25) : . ; Let each one turn himself with 
all his powers highest and lowest away from every circumstance 
of place and time, and betake himself into that ZSTow of eternity, 
where God essentially exists in a certain immovable ZSTow. 
There, there is nothing past or future. There, the beginning 
and end of universal time are alike present. There, in God 
namely, all lost things are found, and they who are accustomed 



NOTES. 269 

to betake themselves to God and abide in Him, become exceed- 
ing rich, nay, they find more than it is possible to lose.' — It may 
be securely inferred that all between the last and the first hired 
received the penny as well ; though it is the case of the first 
hired alone which is brought forward, as that in which the in- 
justice, as the others conceived it, appeared the most striking. 
To assume, as so many have done, e. g. Olshausen, that these 
first hired had been doing their work negligently by comparison, 
is to assume that of which there is not*the slightest trace in the 
narrative, and which morever effectually blunts the point of the 
parable — brings us back to the level of debt instead of grace 
from which to raise us the parable was expressly spoken. Sin- 
gularly enough, exactly such a Jewish parable is to be found in 
the Talmud: "To what was E. Bon Bar Chaija like? To a 
king who hired many laborers, among whom there was one 

hired, who performed his task extraordinarily well 

And the laborers murmured, saying, ' We have labored hard all 
the day, and this man only two hours, yet he hath received as 
much wages as we.' The king said to them, ' He hath labored 
more in those two hours than you in the whole day.' So R. 
Bon plied the law more in eight and twenty years than another 
in a hundred years." 

Josephus (Antiquities, 20, 9, 7) expressly says that Ananus 
(the Annas of the New Test.) paid the workmen who were 
employed in rebuilding or beautifying the temple a whole 
day's pay, even though they should have labored ~but a single 
hour. 

Page 76. — " The penny is to each what he would make it." 
Bellarmine : ' The penny signifies eternal life ; but as the same 
sun is seen more clearly by the eagle than by other birds, and 
the same fire warms those near to it more than those far off, so 
in the same eternal life one will see more clearly and enjoy more 
fully than another.' 

Page 77. — " Just to you, and good to them." Comp. Rom. 
v. 7 (" righteous " and " good "), which is only to be explained 
by keeping fast hold of the opposition between the words. 



270 NOTES. 

Page 78. — The " reward " has relation to -the work, but we 
receive a reward because God has promised it, not because we 
earn it. 

Page 84.—" The image," &e. (See Is. v. 1-7.) No doubt our 
Lord here takes up the prophecy there, the more willingly build- 
ing on the old foundations, that His adversaries accused Him of 
destroying the law ; and not in word only, but by the whole 
structure of the parable, connecting His own appearance with all 
that had gone before in Jewish history, so that men should look 
at it as the crowning and final act of that great dealing of mercy 
and judgment which had ever been going forward. 

Bernard, comparing the Church to the vineyard, says: 
1 Planted in faith, it sends out roots in charity, is dug about by 
the hoe of discipline, manured with the tears of the penitent, 
watered by the words of preachers, and so truly abounds in wine 
&c. ; this wine, of a truth, maketh glad the heart of man, and 
the angels drink it with joy ! ' It no doubt belongs to the fitness 
of the image that a vineyard, if it is to bring forth richly, requires 
the most diligent and unceasing care, that there is no season in 
the year in which much has not to be done in it. 

The vine-stock often appears on the Maccabaean coins as the 
emblem of Palestine ; sometimes, too, the bunch of grapes and 
the vine-leaf. 

Page 86. — " IsTo thing more," &c. Generally the wine-press is 
taken to signify the prophetic institution ; thus, Irenaeus, Hil- 
ary, Ambrose. But all the explanations that are given appear 
fanciful. 

" The vineyard itself will signify, &c. ; and the husbandman 
may be compared to the priests," &c. A friend adds a note 
which I am sure every reader will be glad I have preserved : " I 
do not absolutely question the truth of this interpretation ; but it 
seems to me rather an escape from a difficulty which does not exist 
more in the parable than in all our customary language about 
the Church. The Church is both teacher and taught ; but the 
teachers are not merely the ministers : the whole Church of one 



NOTES. 271 

generation teaches the whole Church of another, by its history, 
acts, words, mistakes," &c. 

Page 88. — " His Sonf or as St. Mark has it, " One Son, His 
well-deloved" This description marks as strongly as possible the 
dignity of Christ's person, and undoubtedly our Lord's hearers 
quite understood what He meant. This has been often observed 
bj the early Church writers, when proving the divinity of the 
Son. 

" The heir:'' Christ is "heir of all things" (Heb. i. 2), not 
as He is the Son of God, for there have always been Arian ten- 
dencies lurking in that interpretation, but as He is the Son of 
man. 

May we not see in the thought of killing the heir and seizing 
on the inheritance, an allusion to the principle of all self-righteous- 
ness, which is a seizing on the Divine inheritance, a seeking to 
take down into self that light which is only light while it is 
recognized as something above self? 

Page 89. — " Having thus prophesied," &c. "We have a remark- 
able example of a like prophesying to men their wickedness, as 
a last endeavor to turn them from that wickedness, in 2 Kings 
viii. 12-15. 

" God will deal with nations," &c. Unless this were so [i. e., 
that nations have a living unity in themselves], all confession of 
our fathers' sin would be mere mockery, and such passages as 
Matt, xxiii. 32-35 without any meaning at all. This is one of the 
many ways in which God encounters our selfish, self-isolating 
tendencies. 

Page 93. — The chief priests and scribes would have laid hands 
on Christ at the close of the foregoing parable, but for their fear 
of the people. Yet not even so did He give them up ; but as 
He had set forth their relation to God as a relation of duty, so 
in this parable of the marriage of the King's Son He sets it forth 
in a more inviting light as a relation of privilege. 



272 KOTES. 

Page 94. — " The two favorite images — a marriage festival 
here." Yitringa : c The marriage symbolizes the very inti- 
mate union of Christ -with the Church ; the nuptial banquet 
shadows forth the blessings of grace, communion in those bless- 
ings, joy, and festivity.' 

Page 98. — " The dangers of having and of getting" &c. 
Comp. Luke xiv. 18, 19, where the guest who has bought a 
property and must needs go and see it, corresponds to the landed 
proprietor here — is one who would enjoy what he already pos- 
sesses ; and the guest who would fain try his five yoke of oxen, 
corresponds to the merchant here — being one who would acquire 
what as yet is his only in anticipation. 

Page 99. — " May we not presume," &c. Often in the East a 
feast would have a great political significance, would in fact be 
a great gathering of the vassals of the king ; contemplated on this 
side, their refusal to come at once assumes the aspect of rebellion. 
Thus there are many reasons for supposing that the feast recorded 
in Esth. i., is the same as the great gathering which Xerxes 
(Ahasuerus) made when he was planning his Greek expedi- 
tion. 

" The natural eye sees only one," &c. Comp. 1 Chr. xxi. 16 ; 
the multitude beheld only the outward calamity, the pestilence, 
but David, with purged spiritual eye, saw the angel. 

Page 100. — " The highways" We must not permit this Eng- 
lish expression to make us think of places in the country ; the 
image throughout the parable is of a city. 

Page 102.— " If the gift, &c, a contempt of the giver." We 
are not without example in the modern history of the East, of a 
vizier having lost his life, through this very failing to wear a 
garment of honor sent to him by the king. Olearius says, in 
describing an invitation to the table of the Persian king: "It 
was told us by the mehmandar, that we, according to their 
usage, must hang the splendid vests that were sent us from the 



NOTES. 273 

king over our dresses, and so appear in his presence. The am- 
bassadors at first refused ; but it was urged so earnestly, the 
mehmandar alleging that the omission would greatly displease 
the king, that they finally consented, and hanged, as did we also, 
the splendid vests over their shoulders, and so the cavalcade 
proceeded." This passage is of value also as it clears away any 
difficulty which might have occurred to any from the apparent 
unfitness of the king's palace as a place for changing of apparel ; 
in fact, there was no change of apparel, for the garment of honor 
was either a vest drawn over the other garments, or a mantle 
hung on the shoulders. 

The Jews have a curious tradition about Esau, that he will 
be such a guest thrust out from the kingdom of God. " Esau 
the wicked will veil himself with his mantle, and sit among the 
righteous in Paradise ; and the holy blessed God will draw and 
bring him out from thence, which is the sense of those words, 
Obad. 4, 6." (Jerusalem Talmud.) 

Page 103. — "It has been abundantly disputed," &c. The 
Komanists have been eager to press this passage into their ser- 
vice. But when they assert that it must have been charity in 
which this guest was deficient, and not faith — for that he had 
faith, since he would not have been present at the feast at all 
unless externally a believer — they are merely taking advantage 
of the double meaning of the word faith, and playing off the 
occasional use of it as a bare assent to the truth against St. Paul's 
far deeper use of the word ; and this most unfairly, for only in 
this latter sense would any attribute the exclusion to want of 
faith. Were it needful to decide absolutely for one or the other 
interpretation, I would far sooner accept the Reformers', for the 
flower may be said to be contained in the root, but not the root 
in the flower, and so charity in faith, but not faith in charity. 
(See page 108, and note thereon in this appendix.) 

Page 106. — Tertullian mentions an abuse which some of the 
Gnostics made of this parable : " The five foolish virgins are the 
five senses ; foolish, inasmuch as they are easily deceived, and 
12* 



274 NOTES* 

often give fallacious notices, while the five wise are the reasonable 
powers, which have the capability of apprehending ideas." 

Page 107. — " Wise " and "foolish" rather than good and lad, 
just as in Matt. vii. 25-27, where a certain degree of good-will 
toward the truth is assumed in the ^foolish, from their putting 
themselves in the relation of hearers, and even attempting to 
build. 

Page 108.—" Here there is a controversy," &c. ; the same as 
that concerning the import of the wedding-garment (page 103, 
and note). The Reformers maintained that the lamps of the 
virgins were the outer deeds of Christianity, and that what the 
foolish virgins lacked, was the inner spirit of life, the living faith ; 
the Romanist reversed the whole, and affirmed that what they 
had was faith, but a faith without works — that they were not 
careful to nourish the lamp of faith, which they bore in sight of 
men, with deeds of light done for and in sight of God. It is 
needless to remark in what different senses the two parties use 
the word faith — the Romanist as the outward profession of the 
truth ; the reformers, as the root and living principle of Chris- 
tian life. But for these opposite uses of the same term, the two 
interpretations would not be incapable of a fair reconciliation. 

Page 109.— The coming of the bridegroom : The love, the 
earnest longing of the first Christians, made them to assume it 
to be close at hand ; when th*ey died, the kingdom was indeed 
come unto them. "While the matter was left in this uncertainty, 
it was yet important that after the expectations of the first ages 
of the Church had proved to be ungrounded, those who ex- 
amined the Scriptures should find intimations that this might 
probably be the case ; of these there are many, and this passage 
is one. 

" The virgins all slumbered," or nodded ; next, they " slept " 
profoundly. 



NOTES. 275 

Page ill. — " Trimmed their lamps." Ward, describing the 
parts of a marriage ceremony in India, of which he was an eye- 
witness, says: " After waiting two or three hours, at length 
near midnight it was announced, 'Behold, the bridegroom 
cometh ; go ye out to meet him,' All now lighted their lamps, 
and ran to take their stations in the procession ; some of them 
had lost their lights and were unprepared, out it was then too 
late to seek them, and the procession moved forward." — " Our 
lamps are going out." The hand-lamp was small; even the 
lamps used at a festival, which would be larger, needed to be 
replenished if kept burning long into the night. 

Page 113. — " Went in with him to the marriage" Comp. 
Milton's " Sonnet to a Virtuous Young Lady," where there is 
constant allusion to this portion of the parable. 

In early times, and in the middle ages, this parable was a 
very favorite subject of Christian art. It may be added that it 
was a favorite subject for the mysteries in the middle ages. 

Page 123. — " Lo, there thou hast that is thine. In reality," &c. 
There is an instructive Eastern tale, which in its deeper meaning 
runs remarkably parallel to this parable. It is as follows : 

" There went a man from home : and to his neighbors twain, 
He gave, to keep for him, two sacks of golden grain. 
Deep in his cellar one the precious charge concealed ; 
And forth the other went and strewed it in his field. 
The man returns at last — asks of the first his sack : 

* Here, take it ; His the same ; thou hast it safely back/ 
Unharmed it shows without ; but when he would explore 
His sack's recesses, corn there finds he now no more : 
One half of what was there proves rotten and decayed, 
Upon the other half have worm and mildew preyed. 
The putrid heap to him in ire he doth return, 
Then of the other asks, ' Where is my sack of corn ? ' 
Who answered, t Come with me and see how it has sped ' — 
And took and showed him fields with waving harvests spread. 
Then cheerfully the man laughed out and cried, ' This one 
Had insight, to make up for the other that had none. 



276 NOTES. 

The letter he observed, but thou the precept's sense. 
And thus to thee and me shall profit grow from hence ; 
In harvest thou shalt fill two sacks of corn for me, 
The residue of right remains in full for thee.' " 

Page 124L- — " From Mm that hath not shall le taken" &c 
Chrysostoni : i; As a fountain from which water is continually 
drawn forth, is thereby rather purified, and bubbles up the more, 
but being stanched, fails altogether ; so [with] the spiritual gift 
and word of doctrine.'' Augustine, applying 2 Kings iv.r" So, 
dearly beloved brethren, love increases as long as it is imparted, 
and therefore we ought industriously to seek vessels into which 
we can pour the oil — the vessels of love are human beings," 

—This parable suggests Shakspeare's lines : 

" Heaven does with us, as we with torches do ; 
Not light them for themselves ; for if our virtues 
Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike 
As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched 
But for fine issues ; nor Nature never lends 
The smallest scruple of her excellence, 
But like a thrifty goddess she determines 
Herself the glory of a creditor. 
Both thanks and use." 

Page 128. — " It is not of course meant," &c. ; as when it is 
said, " the earth dringeth forth fruit of herself' 1 this does not 
exclude the rain, and sun, and all other favorable circumstances. 

Page 129. — " Our Lord's object. &c., to exclude the continuous 
agency of the sower," i. e n of the same kind as he exercises at 
the first. 

Page 132.-— "To all this," &c. Note, " which was"— not, 
which had been " a sinner ; " and again, i; She is & sinner," and 
also, " Thy sins are forgiven." 

The belief in the identity of Mary Magdalene and this woman 
has impressed itself on the very language of Christendom ; but 
without good reason. 

" That a woman," &c. " At a dinner at the consul's house at 



NOTES. 277 

Bamietta, we were rrmcli interested in observing a custom of the 
country. In the room where we were received, besides the divan 
on which we sat, there were seats all round the walls. Many- 
came in and took their places on those side-seats, uninvited and 
yet unchallenged. They spoke to those at the table on business 
or the news of the day, and our host spoke freely to them. "We 
afterwards saw the same custom at Jerusalem."— Karr. of a Miss. 
of Inquiry to the Jews from the Ch. of Scotland in 1839. 

As a specimen of notions of holiness, like Simon's, current 
among the Jews, a commentator on Prov. v. 8 puts this very 
question: "How far must one keep away from a harlot?" 
Eabbi Chasda answers : " Four cubits." And again, various 
rabbies are extolled for their precautions in keeping lepers at a 
distance ; for ex., by flinging stones at them if they come too 
near. Gregory the Great : ' True righteousness has compassion ; 
false righteousness, disdain.' 

Page 135. — " There is, &c. ; faith, and not love, is the pre- 
requisite for forgiveness ; " comp v. 50, " thy faith hath saved 
thee." In the parable, he who owed the large debt is not forgiven 
it as freely as the other debtor, because of his greater previous 
love ; but, on the contrary, the sense of' a larger debt remitted, 
makes him afterwards love his creditor more. The parable, then, 
is not in favor of the Eomish theology. 

Let me quote, were it only with the hope of bringing it before 
one reader hitherto ignorant of it, the following passage on the 
attempt thus to substitute charity for faith in the justification of 
man. " Sin is the disease. What is the remedy ? Charity ? 
Pshaw ! Charity, in the large apostolic sense of the term, is the 
health, the state to be obtained by the use of the remedy, not 
the sovereign balm itself — faith of grace — faith in the God-man- 
hood, the cross, the mediation, the perfected righteousness of 
Jesus, to the utter rejection and abjuration of all righteousness 
of our own ! Faith alone is the restorative. The Eomish 
scheme is preposterous ; it puts the rill before the spring. Faith 
is the source, — charity, that is, the whole Christian life, is the 
stream from it. It is quite childish to talk of faith being im- 



278 NOTES, 

perfect without charity ; as wisely might you say that a fire, 
however bright and strong, was imperfect without heat ; or that 
the sun, however cloudless, is imperfect without beams. The 
true answer would be : It is not faith, but utter reprobate faith- 
lessness." — Coleridge. 

In the Bustan of the famous Persian poet Saadi, there is a 
story which seems an echo of this evangelical history. Jesus, 
while on earth, was once entertained in the cell of a monk of 
eminent reputation for sanctity ; in the same city dwelt a youth 
sunk in every sin, " whose heart was so black that Satan himself 
shrank back from it in horror." This last presently appeared 
before the cell of the monk, and, as smitten by the very presence 
of the Divine prophet, began to lament with tears the sins of his 
past life, and to implore pardon and grace. The monk indig- 
nantly interrupted him, demanding how he dared to appear in 
his presence and in that of God's holy prophet ; assured him that 
for him it was in vain to seek forgiveness ; and in proof how 
inexorably he considered his lot was fixed for hell, exclaimed, 
" My God, grant me but one thing, that I may stand far from 
this man on the judgment day." On this Jesus spoke. "It 
shall be even so : the prayer of both is granted. This sinner has 
sought mercy and grace, and has not sought them in vain — his 
sins are forgiven— his place shall be in Paradise at the last day. 
But this monk has prayed that he may never stand near this 
sinner — this prayer too is granted : hell shall be his place ; for 
there this sinner shall never come." 

Page 138. — " Who is my neighbor ? " It is striking to see this 
question of the narrow-hearted scribe, reappearing in one who 
would think that they had little in common. Emerson? s Essays : 
" Do not tell me, as a good man did to-day, of my obligation to 
put all poor men in good situations. Are they my poor ? I 
tell thee, thou foolish philanthropist, that I grudge the dollar, 
the dime, the cent, I give to such men as do not belong to me, and 
to whom I do not belong. There is a class of persons to whom by 
all spiritual affinity I am bought and sold ; for them I will go to 
prison, if need be ; but your miscellaneous popular charities," &c. 






NOTES. 279 

Page 140.— "A Samaritan." It is very curious how the 
notion that the Samaritans are a mingled people, of two elements, 
one heathen, one Israelitish, should have found way of late even 
into learned books. Christian antiquity saw in them a people 
of unmingled heathen blood, and the expositors of two hundred 
years ago are quite clear of the mistake. 

Page 141. — u I will repay thee." " I " is emphatic : Trouble 
not the poor man on that score ; or, Fear not to be a loser. 

Page 142. — Of course, this deeper interpretation was not 
meant for the lawyer, but for the (then) future Church. It was 
held by most of the Fathers. 

Page 143. — " We might say," &c. ; i. e., if absolutely needful 
to give a precise meaning to the oil and wine. 

Page 149. — Stella remarks that by God's delay in answering 
prayer it is seen who will prove but as the leopard, which, if it 
does not attain its prey at the first spring, turns sullenly back, 
and cannot be induced to repeat the attempt. 

Page 151. — That love of the world, which, keeping itself 
within the limits of decency, yet takes all the affections of the 
heart from God — against that men have need to be continually 
warned, and such a warning is here ; not against unrighteous- 
ness, but against covetousness.— He desired Christ to be an um- 
pire — such only the original means. It is decidedly best to take 
" life" in v. 15, as man's true life— his blessedness : so ever in 
Scripture. 

Page 153. — " Thou hast barns," &c. Augustine : " Suppose 
a friend should enter thy house, and find that thou hadst lodged 
thy fruits on a damp floor, and he should advise, ' Brother, thou 
losest the things which thou hast gathered with great labor ; in 
a few days they will corrupt.' 'And what, brother, shall I 
do ? ' ' Raise them to a higher room.' Thou wouldst listen to 
him, and thou wilt not listen to Christ." 



280 NOTES. 

Page 154. — " Shall he required of thee." The Jewish doctors 
taught that Gabriel drew gently out with a kiss the souls of the 
righteous from their mouths. 

Page 157. — " Sinners above all men; " literally, debtors, with 
a reference to Luke xii. 58, 59. (Comp. Matt. v. 25, 26 ; xviih 
24, &c.) 

Page 162. — " Doubtless this is true of men's lives as well ; " 
there are critical moments to which all the future is linked, 
times of gracious visitation which it is of the deepest importance 
to observe and improve. — An Arabian writer gives as a receipt for 
a barren palm-tree, that its owner, accompanied by a friend, go 
with a hatchet, and giving the stem three blows with the back 
of it, declare to his friend his purpose of cutting it down. He 
intercedes for and saves it, and the tree will be certainly fruitful 
that year. 

Page 165. — " Perhaps," &c. Comp. p. 98, and note. Comp. 
this parable and that in Matt, xxii., and observe in what consistent 
keeping all the minor circumstances are arranged in each. There, 
a Icing has armies, and also whole bands of servants, and not 
merely a single one ; the refusal to accept his invitation was 
rebellion, &c. 

Page 170. — " "When St. Luke," &c. : so the original indicates. 

There is no image upon which the early Church seems to 
have dwelt with greater delight than this of Christ as the good 
Shepherd bringing home His lost sheep. Yery many gems, 
seals, &c, represent Him as bringing back a lost sheep on His 
shoulders. In Tertullian's time, it was painted on the com- 
munion chalice ; so in bas-reliefs on sarcophagi, and paintings 
in the catacombs. Sometimes He is sitting as if weary ; and this 
representation always occupies the place of honor, the centre of 
the vault or tomb. 

Page 182. — " Publicans," Jews ; if not all, yet far the greater 
number, in Judea. Comp, Luke xix. 9. 



NOTES. 281 

Page 184. — a He leganf &c. ; literally, " He began himself to 
be in want ; " tbe famine reached even to him. 

" He begins," &c. Thus, when a great English poet, with 
every thing that fortune and rank and genius could give him, and 
who had laid out his whole life for pleasure and not for duty— 
before he had reached half the allotted period of man, exclaimed, 

" My days are in the yellow leaf, 

The flowers, the fruits, of love are gone ; 
The worm, the canker, and the grief 
Are mine alone — " 

what is this but the confession of one who, having spent all, had 
found himself in want? Or again, the prodigal's misery, his 
sense of the barrenness of sin, find a yet deeper voice : 

" The fire that on my bosom preys, 
Is lone as some volcanic isle ; 
No torch is lighted at its blaze — 
A funeral pile ! " 

Page 186. — "We may suppose he did eat them," &c. So 
Calvin. 

Bernard : l Foolish sons of Adam, by devouring the husks of 
swine, ye feed not your hungering souls, but the hunger itself of 
your souls.' 

Page 190. — " When he was yet a great way off," &c. Eastern 
proverb : " If a man draws near to God an inch, God will draw 
near to him an ell ;" or as Von Hammer gives it : " Who approaches 
me a span, to him do I make haste an ell ; and who comes to 
meet me, to him do I make haste in leaps." 

Page 193. — The ring, too, may be the pledge of betrothal. 
Comp. Hos. ii. 19, 20, and indeed the whole chapter. 

Page 194. — " Safe and sound ; " the servant's words : the 
father has a deeper joy — his son has come back a different man 
(v. 32). 



282 notes. 

Page 197. — We must place the emphasis on "with me" 
else we shall entirely miss the meaning. 

Page 202. — " He feels,'' &c. They see, then, in the lowering 
of the bills the first act of his righteousness, getting over its 
dishonesty by giving it altogether a mystical meaning, and so 
refusing to contemplate it in the letter at all, or in a way which 
we shall soon notice. — " Eahab the harlot;'''' Comp. Matt. x. 
3 ; xxvi. 6 ; Tit. iii. 13. — The two debtors are plainly representa- 
tives here of many more ; just as but three servants are named 
out of the ten, Luke xix. 13. — To one he remits half, to the other 
the fifth of his debt ; by these different proportions teaching us, 
say many, that charity is not to be a blind profuseness. 

The transaction was plainly not with the debtors apart from 
each other, as is indicated by " And — thou? " v. 7. 

Page 206. — " There are martyrs of the devil," &c. There is 
a story of an Egyptian eremite, which illustrates this — chancing 
to see a dancing girl, he was moved to tears. Being asked the 
reason, he replied, That she should be at such pains to please 
men in her sinful vocation ; and we in our holy calling use so little 
diligence to please God. 

Page 207. — " This is the meaning given, though too vaguely" 
— as by Calvin, who says : ' The sum of this parable is that we 
are to deal kindly and generously with our neighbors, so that 
when we come to the judgment the fruit of our liberality may 
return to us.' If this be all, why an unjust steward ? Yet this 
was the point mainly, often exclusively, made by the early 
Church writers — liberal almsgiving. So Irenasus, Augustine, 
Athanasius. And so also Erasmus, Luther, and many more. 

Page 208. — " Mammon " would, I believe, be more correctly 
spelt with a single m. 

"Others say," &c. Sirac. xxvii. 2: "As a nail sticketh 
fast between the joinings of the stones, so doth sin stick close 
between buying and selling." Cajetan : c Mammon of untight- 



NOTES. 283 

eousness, because rarely or never is there wealth in whose accumu- 
lation or management there has not occurred sin, either on the 
part of its possessors, or their agents, or their ancestors.' 

Page 209.— -The use of adiJcos ("unrighteous ") for "false" 
runs through the whole Septuagint. Thus Deut. xix. 16. — " In 
the moment," &c. The existence of property has ever been 
strongly felt as a witness for the selfishness of man. But with 
all this, we must not forget that the attempt prematurely to 
realize this or any other little fragment or corner of the king- 
dom of God apart from the rest — the corruption of man's heart 
remaining unremoved and being either overlooked or denied — 
has ever been one of the most fruitful sources of the worst mis- 
chiefs. — " That when ye fail" It may perhaps be a question 
whether this should not be " that when it fails," i. e., the mam- 
mon. In that case Seneca has a striking parallel : ' Marc Antony, 
when he saw his fortune passing over to another, and nothing 
left for himself, exclaimed, finely : Whatsoever I have given 
away, this I have. These are sure riches that will abide in one 
spot, in whatsoever fickleness of fortune.' 

" Everlasting habitations," thus tacitly contrasted with the 
temporary shelter which was all that the steward could secure ; 
also, perhaps, with the temporary stewardship of every man 
here. An ancient writer supposes the unjust steward to have 
been the Apostle Paul thrust out by God of his Judaism, then 
making himself a reception in many hearts by preaching the 
Gospel ; and a modern author affirms the Lord Himself to have 
been meant ! 

Page 214. — " It is most important," &c. ; if we conceive of 
its primary purpose as to warn against the abuse of riches, it 
will neither satisfactorily cohere with the remaining discourse, 
nor will the parable itself possess that unity of purpose so charac- 
teristic of our Lord's parables — it will seem to have a double 
point. 

Page 216.—" The extreme costliness of the purple dye," i. e, r 



284 NOTES. 

the true sea-purple, but a few drops of dyeing liquid being found 
in each fish ; what fish exactly is not now known. 

" Byssus." Pliny tells of a kind exchanged for its weight in 
gold. 

Page 217. — Lazarus ; it is a striking witness of the impres- 
sion this parable has made, that lazar should have passed into so 
many languages, losing altogether its signification as a proper 
name. 

" His name," &c. Augustine : " Seems he not to you to have 
been reading from that book where he found the name of the 
poor man written, but found not the name of the rich ; for that 
book is the book of life ? " 

Page 218. — Luther: 'Behold, he, who while living had not 
even one man for a friend, is suddenly honored with the ministry 
not of one angel but of many.' 

Page 219. — Ohrysostom : " For as on the stage some enter, 
assuming the masks of kings and captains, physicians and orators, 
philosophers and soldiers, being in truth nothing of the kind ; so 
also in the present life, wealth and poverty are only masks. As 
then, when thou sittest in the theatre, and beholdest one playing 
below who sustains the part of a king, thou dost not count him 
happy, nor esteemest him a king, nor desirest to be such as he ; 
but knowing him to be one of the common people, a ropemaker 
or a blacksmith, or some such a one as this, thou dost not esteem 
him happy for his mask, and his robe's sake, nor judgest of his 
condition from these, but holdest him cheap for the meannness 
of his true condition : so also, here sitting in the world as in a 
theatre, and beholding men playing as on a stage, when thou seest 
many rich, count them not to be truly rich, but to be wearing 
the masks of rich. For as he, who on the stage plays the king 
or captain, is often a slave, or one who sells figs or grapes in the 
market, so also this rich man is often in reality poorest of all. 
For if thou strip him of his mask, and unfold his conscience, and 
scrutinize his inward parts, thou wilt there find a great penury 



NOTES, 285 

of virtue ; thou wilt find him to be indeed the most abject of 
men. And as in the theatre, when evening is come and the 
spectators are departed, and the players are gone forth thence, 
having laid aside their masks and their dresses, then they who 
before showed as kings and captains to all, appear now as they 
truly are ; so now, when death approaches and the audience is 
dismissed, all, laying aside the masks of wealth and poverty, de- 
part from hence, and, being judged only by their works, appear 
some indeed truly rich, but some poor ; and some glorious, but 
others without honor." Arndt compares such as the rich man 
in the parable to camels and mules, who carry all day silken 
vestments, gems, perfumes, and generous wines, but as soon as 
they reach the stall at night, are unladen, and show nothing 
but the marks of blows. Shakspeare, too : 

" If thou art rich, thou art poor, 
For like an ass whose back with ingots bows, 
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey, 
And death unloads thee." 

Page 223. — " Such was," &c. Thus in the Jewish books the 
scholar of an eminent rabbi found his master one day in extreme 
affliction, and began to laugh, while all the other scholars were 
weeping around him. Being upbraided, he answered that he 
had often feared lest his master was receiving his portion in this 
world, but now seeing him afflicted, he took courage again. 

U A great gulf 1 there, not merely, but " fixed " there. 

Page 225. — " If they hear not" &c. In effect saying : A far 
greater act than you desire would fail to produce afar less effect : 
you suppose that wicked men would repent on the return of a 
spirit ; I tell you they would not even be persuaded by the rising 
of one from the dead. It is a pity that we have not " ?/one " in 
v. 31 as in v. 30. 

Page 227. — " When the Gentile Church," &c. Nor are we 
to expect, before its judgment, any startling summons to rouse it 
— any novel sign. 



286 NOTES. 

Page 232. — "Say, we are unprofitable servants." Bengel: 
4 Wretched is lie whom the Lord calls an unprofitable servant 
(Matt. xxv. 30)— blessed, he who calls himself so.' 

Page 234. — This parable is addressed to the disciples, and 
stands in closest relation with what has gone immediately before, 
with the description of the sufferings of the last times, when even 
the disciples " shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of 
man, and shall not see it " (Luke xvii. 22). 

" In this precept," &c. Origen : " The whole life of the 
faithful should be one connected prayer." St. Basil : " Prayer 
should be the salt which is to salt everything besides." Augus- 
tine : "There is another interior prayer without intermission, 
and that is the longing of thy heart. — Thy continual desire is thy 
continual voice. Thou wilt be silent, if thou leave off to love. 
The coldness of love is the silence of the heart — the fervency of 
love is the cry of the heart ! " 

Page 235. — " This judge," &c. ; and he dared to avow this 
contempt to himself. 

" How fitly, then," &c. It would be a very imperfect view of 
those cries for deliverance, occurring so often in the Psalms and 
Prophets, to refer them to any particular and transient outward 
persecutions. The world is always, consciously or unconsciously, 
by flattery or by hostile violence, oppressing God's people ; and 
Satan evermore seeking to hinder the manifestation of the life 
of God in them. 

Page 236. — " From the Evil One " — the source and centre of 
all evil. The analogy of other passages, Matt. xiii. 19, 38, 39 ; 
Eph. vi. 16 ; 2 Thess. iii. 3, would lead us so to translate; and 
so was it interpreted in the Greek Church. 

Page 237. — " He said" &c. The endeavor to obtain help or 
redress by long-continued crying and mere importunity — to ex- 
tort thus a boon or a right — is quite in the spirit of the East. 

" The certainty, &c, on their election ; " Comp. Daniel xii. 
1, 1. c. 



NOTES. 287 

Page 238.—" All help," &c. The lateness of the help Zecha- 
riah (xiv. 1-5) describes, tinder the images of the old theocracy 
— Jerusalem shall be already taken, the enemy within its walls 
and spoiling, when the Lord shall come forth. 

" Shall he find faith t " or rather that faith, the faith which 
does not faint in prayer, with allusion to v. 1. 

Page 239. — " The last," &c. Augustine finds a yet closer 
connection : ' Because faith belongs not to the proud but to the 
humble, He added a parable about humility in contrast with 
pride.' He had seen in some of His followers spiritual pride 
and contempt for others. — This Pharisee, with all who pride 
themselves because of their victory over certain temptations, is 
wittily likened by Gregory the Great to Eleazar, who killed the 
elephant, but was himself crushed by its falling body (1 Mace, 
vi. 46). 

Page 241. — " Acknowledgment," &c. Augustine : ' Had he 
then no sins to confess ? Yes, but — he was like a patient on the 
table of a surgeon, who should show his sound limbs, and cover 
his hurts. But let God cover thy hurts, and not thou. Let Him 
cover and cure them ; for under the covering of the physician 
the wound is healed, under the covering of the sufferer, it is only 
concealed ; and concealed from whom ? From Him to Whom all 
things are known ! ' 

" Not so much as his eyes : " far less, then, his hands and his 
countenance, which yet would be usually lifted up in prayer 
(1 Tim. ii. 8; 1 Kings viii. 54; Heb. xii. 12 ; Ps. xxviii. 2), which 
no doubt the Pharisee had lifted up in his. 

Page 242. — " Christ does not mean," &c. It is characteristic 
that this should be denied by nearly all the chief Romanist com- 
mentators, though in fact this is the very truth which the para- 
ble is to teach. 

Page 244. — " In the great Eoman Empire," &c. Thus Herod 
the Great was at first no more than a subordinate officer in 



288 NOTES. 

Judea, and flying to Rome before Antigonus, was there declared 
by the Senate, through Antony's influence, King of the Jews. 
Archelaus, his son, too, had personally to wait on Augustus in 
Rome before inheriting his father's dominions. 

Page 245. — " This nobleman," &c. Either supposition, it is 
true, would suit Christfs case. 

" We will not," &c. Exactly thus, a faction of the Jews, in 
the case of Archelaus, sent ambassadors to the court of Augustus 
to accuse him there, and if possible prevent his elevation. 

" Occupy" i. e., employ in trading. 

Page 246. — " If we find," &c. The parable is equally capable 
of the narrower and the wider interpretation. — " A speaking of 
great things against Him ; " not merely disobedience but de- 
fiance. 

Page 247.—" The rewards," &c. Contrast Matt. xxv. 14-80, 
where the master is but a private man, and gives therefore hum- 
bler rewards. 

" Those who stand by," &c. The servant not needing his 
napkin for its proper use ("in the sweat," &c, Gen. iii. 19), 
natura]ly uses it to wrap up his pound. 

' " The words," &c. As there is love in the Old Testament, so 
fear and that which should awaken it in the New. 



THE END. 



. ?. I860, 



v.. 



LRBA F '?t 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: July 2005 

PreservationTechnologies 

A WORLD LEADER IN PAPER PRESERVATION 

1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township. PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 228 748 1 



■ 
■ 



■P 



■ 



' ■ 






■ ■ 







